Perfect's Overdone
by groovymoonshoes
Summary: Kurt Hummel has more or less given into the fact that he can't escape his reality. So why is it that all it takes is a boy in a superhero costume, who Kurt barely knows outside of his cape and bodysuit, to change everything? Sometimes it's important to realise that you aren't the only one playing pretend, running and waiting for reality to catch up on you...
1. Starting Place

**Story notes: Set circa season 2, but with a lot of changes. Canon up to Never Been Kissed, by which Kurt doesn't go to spy on the Warblers, and with spoilers/ plot elements to the end of the season. Some messing with the order of events to make it all fit in smoothly with the plot of the fic.  
**

**Marley and Unique have been bumped forward a bit too, and Marley goes to McKinley already with little explanation.**

* * *

Kurt always tried his hardest to make it through the school day with his head down, keeping out of harm's way, simply walking from class to class by himself and avoiding the jocks. He had come to realise that there wasn't safety in numbers by travelling with the other glee kids between their classes, but rather that groups attracted other groups- and their small group of three would only take more impact from the slushies when they were thrown in their faces by five guys than one each.

Where he stood, even walking around with Santana or Brittany or Finn didn't help much, because the status of one person really didn't help the other out at all. Even with Finn as his new step-brother, the bullying had only faded for a few days. Going from "Hudson's faggy friend" to "Hudson's brother" had helped, but all too soon he was just "Hudson's faggy brother".

Unlike the other glee kids Kurt had the added hassle of having a personal tormentor. Karofsky would throw coloured goo on the others, but he wouldn't go out of his way to slam them into lockers the way that he did with Kurt. No day was a safe day in Kurt's books.

Karofsky hadn't turn up to school one day for whatever reason, and Kurt had just been greeted by an enthusiastic shove into the locker and then to the ground by another jock- he was too tall with dumb hair and a face that was so conventionally handsome it was boring- with the shout of "That was for Karofsky, fairy! He asked us to pass the memo on. He wanted to be here to do it for himself, loser, but he let us do it! You know he doesn't let any of us touch you except for him, huh, fag?" Kurt didn't try to get to his feet right away.

It wasn't until he examined himself in the mirror that night that he realised that he was much more bruised across his shoulders from the impact than he tended to be. Not that Karofsky was noticeably gentler in his locker shoves, but it wasn't usually so painful afterwards that Kurt had to lie on his front to sleep without pain shooting through his back every time he moved. The newer jock was making the most of the opportunity to attack him in Karofsky's absence- and Kurt couldn't help but wonder what he had meant by Karofsky not allowing any of the other jocks to injure him. It wasn't protective. It was keeping Kurt for himself to abuse. And Kurt had nowhere to go.

"Kurt! Why are you in such a hurry? Let me walk you out to your car at least, boo," Mercedes said, rushing up to him and looping their arms together as they walked down the empty hallway after glee. "I know it looks like we aren't getting solos for sectionals, but that's no reason to shoot off like that. I feel like I haven't seen you in forever." Kurt knew that Mercedes worried about him like any best friend would, and he also knew that he had been distant lately. With everything going on with the bullying, he had become more and more reserved, and he had no plans to stick around at school for a moment longer than he had to. The building was his personal tier of hell.

"I'm sorry, 'Cedes. I just have to get home today; I have a French speech to write, and I can't get away with reciting the French lyrics for Defying Gravity again," Kurt said, and it was a complete lie. He did have to write a speech, and he had recited Defying Gravity for a speech in the past, but the presentations weren't for another two weeks and he already had a lot of class time to work on it.

"But you're so good at French! You could make it up on the spot, I swear!" Tina chimed, having caught up to them. Kurt hadn't even noticed her arriving.

"I _could_, if I was happy pulling Bs. But I need the French grades if I ever want to study abroad." _and god knows France is the furthest place from Karofsky._ Mercedes frowned but let him go when they got to his Navigator. Kurt accepted the hugs from his friends, but he wished that they would give him a little bit more space sometimes.

Ever since Kurt was old enough to walk down the road from his house to the park on his own, it had become his designated thinking space. When he was younger he would swing. When he got a little bit older he would bring a book to read. At his junior year, he had moved house, it had been a long time since he had gone to the park by himself, and he didn't know what else he was meant to do. The park was buzzing and there wasn't a single quiet space for him to find and sit quietly on his own, so he shared a bench with an elderly couple who gave him a concerned smile when he sat down and began to read. The couple left and Kurt was barely two pages further in than when he had gotten there.

"Nightbird, there's been another break in at the Hutchsworth mansion. I need you to come with me to check it out." Kurt's attention was torn away from the pages of _Les Misérables _at the conversation happening before him. Two guys, both dressed in elaborate superhero costumes, were the source of the chatter. He rolled his eyes and tried to return to where he was reading, but had lost his place. Bitterly, he marked his page and sat back, trying to make sense of what they were talking about.

"Again? What does she have that JetCat could ever want?" the younger looking hero said, "I thought _you _had the amulet." The more Kurt looked at him the more he realised that he was very attractive, and the tight fitting bodysuit left little to the imagination. Nightbird was toned around his arms and chest, and it was no secret.

"I do. Right here." The older hero pulled a plastic necklace with a comically large medallion on it from under his suit, before quickly tucking it away. "But I get the feeling that JetCat wasn't involved. The break in just isn't her style. It isn't perfect enough. But the attempt looks close..."

"Glameow?"

"That's what I'm thinking. And we know that she doesn't do it to take anything. She does it to prove she can. Come on, Nightbird. We need to get over there pronto." The older hero swooshed his cape and the younger- Nightbird, he had been called- followed suit, and the two "flew" off together and out of earshot, in the direction of some other people, who were clearly anticipating their arrival. Other heroes were jumping around in the small playground, and Kurt figured they were all one group.

A girl with cat ears and crutches hobbled over to Kurt's bench and sat down beside him, looking over at the group that Nightbird and his friend had flown off to. "I should have stayed over there. The Hutchsworth plot involves me fairly directly," she said, following it with a sigh as she set her crutches down and her leg in a cast up on the bench. "Les Mis, huh? Have they published it with musical breaks yet?"

Kurt took a moment to realise that she was talking to him. "Oh, uh, no. It's an ambitious read, I know, but I have a lot of time on my hands."

"We could use some fresh blood," the girl- a young woman really, she looked to be in her mid-twenties- said. Kurt glanced back over towards the heroes. "Curious, huh?"

"A little," Kurt admitted, "I just can't really figure out what's going on."

"Erica," the girl introduced, holding her hand out for Kurt to shake.

"Kurt."

"Well, Kurt, what would you like to know?" He thought about the question for a moment, looking over to the group. Nightbird held the hands of a girl behind her back while the other hero tied them in place. Beside them stood two others who weren't in such obvious costume, a boy in heels with a feather boa and a younger girl with a leopard print cardigan, both ranting about something. The heroes nodded along, but it was clear they didn't have many thoughts on the matter.

"Who's Nightbird?" Kurt blurted out, his eyes not leaving the group. As soon as he had said it he felt a blush spreading from his neck. Luckily, Erica laughed.

"The nocturnal avenger! Don't let anyone in Dreamweaver hear you say that. Everyone knows Nightbird. He's a rising star. Not only is he dashingly handsome, he's apprentice to White Wings over there, and, when White retires from the Defenders, he'll be the new leader of the hero side." Kurt looked at her blankly. "His name is Blaine, and yeah, everyone thinks he's gorgeous. Just ask Hadley. She's the blonde over there." The girl put her hands on Blaine's shoulders and leaned close to his ear, whispering something. _Of course _someone as gorgeous as the superhero had a girlfriend. Stupid Hadley and her leopard print cardigan. "You should stick around after the session times out and meet everyone. They're all nice people. We don't bite, honestly."

"So why the costumes? You're all just... playing pretend?" Kurt asked.

"No, no. It's Live Action Roleplaying. More like... extended improv acting. We do our plotting, then we get into character and we act it all out. It's fun, until you jump out of a tree and expect to have cat-like reflexes and break your leg." Erica gestures to her leg in a cast and sighs.

"How often are you here?"

"Well our location shifts around. We LARP here about this time every week, when the weather is nice. We usually meet up three times a week or so, but it's not compulsory or anything to go to all the sessions, if you don't want to. Luke and I, Hadley and Blaine are always here, at least. When we don't get enough people then we just call it quits and get coffee instead."

"So if I came back at this time next week..?" Erica grinned.

"Then we would be here and you can lurk on us some more. I'm getting this damn attention whore of a cast off next week, so JetCat will be back to her villainous ways. And there's nothing the defenders can do about it. Oh, Luke's looking over here. Give me a moment." Erica adjusted her top to show off her boobs better and raised an eyebrow over at the hero. He managed to avoid looking for long enough. "Damn. He's so solidly White Wings that he can't pay any attention to his fiancée. Go figure. Don't date a LARPer when you can't LARP alongside them." Kurt nodded, pretending that he knew what she was talking about, when he really didn't. He hadn't dated anyone, nor had he even heard of LARPing until a few minutes ago. "Hey, Kurt? It would be really cool if you stuck around. You might want to have a go yourself in a couple of weeks."

"Thanks, but I really should be getting home. Maybe next week," Kurt said, standing up. He took a few steps away from the bench before turning back to Erica. "Say I _did _want to get involved, how much would I have to know about superheroes?"

"Better question, how much do you know about boys in bodysuits?" Erica quipped, raising an eyebrow.

"What exactly is the right answer?"

"Just say that you like looking at Blaine's and I'll let you go," she said disinterestedly, inspecting her nails.

"Okay, fine. Blaine is... cute. And now I'm going to leave before you force me to talk to him."

"Wise move, Kurtsies. See you next week." Kurt climbed into his car and drove home, hating how curious he was about how the whole thing worked. He wanted to try. He wanted to befriend Erica, who had teased him about boys in bodysuits, but never once batted an eyelid at his response. Suddenly, Kurt realised that he might have found a new safe haven, a place that remained totally untouched by school- a saving grace that not even glee club had.

* * *

One week. It takes Kurt one week to fall in love with the idea of Blaine.

The next week, Kurt didn't bother to bring a book with him to the park. He had spent a lot of the week wondering about the people, the odd teenagers in superhero costumes and the older two who facilitated the activity. Every time he thought about it, his mind would drift back to Blaine, the boy he had never even spoken to, but had been so gorgeous and whose smile had called Kurt back.

Erica waved to him when she first arrived with the others, but he watched as she slid into her villainess persona and didn't give it up. Kurt _still _couldn't really understand what was going on, but tried to pick out the familiar faces. The groups had changed up from the week before, and he couldn't work out why Blaine- Nightbird, Kurt supposed, since he was in character- was talking to the villain who he was holding in place for the other hero last week. The two seemed friendly with one another when they should be enemies.

All too soon Kurt found that he was watching Blaine's every movement. The way he smiled, nodded, talked with his hands. He imagined Blaine's hands holding his, the strong arms around his waist, his beautiful lips ghosting against his...

"Can you hold this for a second?" a blond boy about his age asked him, holding out a costume policeman's hat to Kurt. He recognised the boy from the week before, someone in the roleplay, and took it from him.

"Sure."

"Thanks. When Dovetail comes by in a minute or two, you didn't take it and neither did I." Another hero name; Kurt wasn't sure if he could keep up. The boy sat down on the bench next to him, whistling in forced nonchalance. Another boy walked over to them and glared at the pair on the bench.

"Excuse me, sir," he said, not aiming it at Kurt, "but I need to ask you to return the hat. I'll pass it on to the Constable, no hard feelings, and he won't call your parents..." he looked down to see the hat in Kurt's hands. "Oh," he said, "we can deal with the issue in, erm, ten minutes." The hero walked off, shrugging at the boy pouting at him.

"I knew that would work," the blond said to Kurt, whose eyes were stuck back on Blaine, "I'm going to be in _so _much trouble though."

"It's not really that worth it though, right?"

"I'm not meant to be acknowledging your presence, voice in the park. Here in Dreamweaver we don't believe in communicating with that which we cannot see. But all the same, I'm going to cut you some slack, because you just saved my butt from the cops. It isn't worth it, no, but I get a certain rush from it. My counsellor says I have behavioural issues." Kurt, purely baffled by the boy, simply nodded, pretending to have understood most of what had just happened. Erica walked towards the bench, stopping halfway to blow a kiss to the heroes behind her. When she reached the bench, she tapped it twice, and slowly all the other LARPers ended their conversations and assembled by the bench, each tapping it. Kurt found himself stuck in the middle of the group, and no one seemed to mind.

"Jeff, you idiot! You went completely out of character there for a moment!" the boy who had approached them about the hat said, whacking him gently in the arm as he flopped down onto the blond's- Jeff's- lap. Jeff didn't seem to mind the new company.

"I didn't, Nick! I even explained that I wasn't talking to him! Right?" Jeff looked at Kurt for back up.

"Right. He said that he didn't believe in communicating with spirits or something," Kurt said, "you want this back?" he held the hat out to Nick, who took it and passed it to another guy.

"Ethan, it's yours," he said.

"Nope, it's _Carlton's_. But I'll take responsibility for his actions," Ethan replied, taking the hat and putting it on.

"Okay, so the Jeff thing is sorted. Any other LARP stuff to cover?" Erica asked. The teenagers all looked at her blankly. "Great, well, as per usual next Saturday is our monthly plotter, anything that needs going in the larpwriter should be emailed to Luke, and please wash your suits because you all smell like teenage boy."

"Rude," Hadley said, looking to the girl who Blaine had been talking to, "Marley? Any help here?"

"Actually, Leo got a bit cuddly before. I _do _smell like teenage boy."

"Sorry," a boy said, and Kurt figured that he must be Leo. He had his arms around Ethan's shoulders affectionately.

"Is that all, Erica?" a beautiful voice said calmly. Kurt looked over to find that the owner of the voice was none other than Blaine- and the velvet smooth tone to his voice was even better than he remembered. He stood slightly to the side, his cape huddled around him like a blanket, keeping to himself. Luke and Erica held hands. Nick was sitting on Jeff. Leo and Ethan were cuddling loosely. Marley and the others stood close to one another. Blaine was a stark contrast to all of them, and it made Kurt wonder if he was reserved on purpose or if he simply didn't have anyone to be physically affectionate with in the same way.

"Yes. Your mom needs you home?" Erica asked with a concerned tone. Blaine nodded. "You can go. See you on Friday?"

"Oh, um, I don't know if I can make it yet."

"Just text us or something either way, okay?"

"Yeah, I'll do that. I should get going." Blaine said, offering a wave to everyone. A chorus of 'bye, Blaine' followed.

Ethan pecked Leo on the cheek and said, "I should head off too. See you all on Monday!" He slid out of Leo's arms and half-jogged over to Blaine, offering to give him a ride home, which Blaine visibly accepted.

"Oh, everyone, this is Kurt. Kurt, everyone," Erica introduced, "he might join us soon, right?"

"Yeah, maybe. I still don't really understand what's going on," Kurt admitted, suddenly incredibly self conscious in the middle of the circle. Everyone seemed to be looking at him, and though he knew he should take it as them being interested and attentive, it was a little intimidating.

"You need a character first," Luke said, "any ideas on that part?" Kurt shrugged.

"I'll help you!" Marley said brightly, "do you have any time after school in the next couple of weeks? Or we could do it at school, if you'd like!"

"You go to McKinley?" Kurt asked, feeling terrible that he had never even seen the girl before. She nodded. The group began to disband around them.

"You're in the glee club, right?"

"Yeah, I am."

"I was going to audition at the beginning of the year, but then I looked up some of your old performances and Rachel Berry is terrifying. I could never step through that choir room door. I just wasn't going to live up to the expectations."

"You wouldn't have to. I thought it would be clear that we all just sing back up for her. You don't have to be able to match her standard, because it's not like you would ever get a solo anyway." Kurt sighed slightly. He wished that he was over exaggerating.

"Oh, well, I think you're really good, anyway. It's a shame you don't get to sing more." Kurt was sure he could feel a blush spreading to his cheeks and willed it to go away. He knew he could sing, but it was still nice to hear it every so often.

"So, Marley, when are you free to do this character stuff with me? I really have no clue where to even start. I suppose it would help if you could explain where everyone else's characters fitted in, too."

"I don't do very much outside of the LARP, to be honest. Do you have any plans for tomorrow?"

"I promised my friends that I would hang out with them. Monday?" Marley shook her head.

"We have a session. Tuesday?"

"Okay, deal. Tuesday it is," Kurt accepted, putting a mental block in his calendar. Marley suggested that they walk home from school together, and Kurt was more than happy to do so. It would save him a few explanations at home as to where he was going, and he could avoid being cornered at his car by Tina or Mercedes. Soon the group was diminished down to Erica, Luke and Hadley, who were clearly waiting for everyone else to leave, and Kurt took his cue to go.

* * *

Marley, though she may have seemed initially shy, seemed to have warmed up to Kurt by Tuesday, and she didn't stop chattering away for the whole walk to her house. She only lived a couple of streets over from McKinley, which meant that there wasn't a whole lot of time for them to fill with conversation. They easily slipped into polite background buzz more than anything else, asking one another about their classes and clubs, bonding over mutual hatred for certain snooty teachers and recapping the latest episode of Sing.

When they got to Marley's house, she toed off her shoes at the door (so Kurt followed suit) and she was very quick to lead Kurt through to the kitchen and immediately fix a plate of snacks. "Is it really lame that I do this every day?" Marley asked, picking up the plate.

"No, no," Kurt said, "it's sweet. Thank you." He followed her into the living room- it wasn't a small room, but it was filled with so much furniture there was hardly space to breathe- and settled onto the worn couch. Marley sat beside him and placed the plate down on the coffee table.

"You can put your feet up on the table, or whatever. I know it can be kind of awkward when you first go to someone's house and really, you don't have worry about anything," Marley said shyly, "but on the other hand, do you mind if we watch Degrassi before we start on roleplay business?" Kurt did his best to contain a laugh, but it obviously wasn't good enough because Marley dropped her head into her hands. "I _knew _I shouldn't have brought it up," she said, stifling her own laughter, "do I take that as a no?"

"Which season are you watching?" Kurt asked, "I haven't watched it for a few years." Marley gaped at him.

"But you _did _watch it? In all its teen drama glory?"

"Yeah, but I'm not up to date with any of this new stuff. You'll have to catch me up again." Marley visibly didn't stop grinning from the time she set up her DVD to the time she hit play on the episode. She pointed out each character as they popped up, and by the end of the episode, Kurt felt as though he knew enough that he could pick it up again, despite it being an older season.

"You probably liked Marco best in season seven though, right?" Marley asked, folding her legs under herself.

"Should I be offended that you picked the one gay character on the show?" Kurt replied. Marley clasped her hand over her mouth.

"Oh my god, I didn't mean it like that. I didn't want to assume anything, I'm so sorry. I wasn't even implying that _you _are gay, I swear, I honestly just thought that he would be your favourite!" Kurt couldn't help but laugh at the situation. He had put his friendship into the right girl from the roleplay, he could just feel it.

"Marley, calm down," Kurt said through his laughter, "I'm not upset."

"Oh, good, good."

"Maybe we should just move onto character stuff," Kurt suggested, and she visibly relaxed.

"Yeah, that sounds like a good plan to me. Have you thought about it at all? Like, do you have any kind of starting point?" Marley found some paper and pens and placed them on the table, ready for note taking.

"Um, not really. I was hoping that you could explain all the other characters to me first, and then I could see where I can fit in, or something." He wasn't really sure what kind of clarity he was expecting, but he was hopeful for some kind of progress in his understanding of the group and the interactions between the characters.

"Okay, good point." Marley split a page into two columns, labelling one 'player' and the other 'character'. "So we have Luke, who plays White Wings, and Erica, who plays JetCat," she began, writing things down in the columns as she went. "White Wings is the leader of the Defenders, and JetCat is his arch nemesis. But they have a sort of flirtatious relationship. Then there's Nightbird, played by Blaine. Nightbird is White Wings' apprentice of sorts, and he's training to take over leadership when White eventually retires. On the same sort of tier as Nightbird is Glameow, my character. She kind of wants to be a villain but isn't that good at it, and JetCat doesn't like her very much. Leo plays Hawkbeak, a sort of minor hero, who works independent of the Defenders. They are the heroes and the villains." Marley ruled a line underneath the names so far. She glanced at Kurt, who was still following okay, took a deep breath and continued. "No town would be complete without some civilians. So we have Unique, played by Wade- but don't you dare call her that, she is Unique all the time to you- who is a famous starlet, really vulnerable to the villains. Yvonne, her best friend, is played by Hadley. Miss Tigressa is a model, also very rich, and has a sort of evil streak. Ethan plays Constable Carlton. Nick and Jeff play teenage best friends, Drew and Braxton, but whereas Braxton gets into trouble for fun, Drew has a hero persona, too," Marley reached the end of explanation and put the pen down. "So, your character. Hero, civilian, villain?"

"I don't really know enough about superheroes to play one," Kurt admitted, "but I think I can handle a civilian."

"Great! Well, there's our starting place." In the next half an hour, Kurt and Marley pieced together a character. Marley asked Kurt questions, which he tried his best to answer in character, and she noted down his answers. They had a frame for his character, which Marley assured him would be fleshed out best in time, as he simply played the game and plotted with the others.

Kurt was to play a fresh out of college journalist with a fascination with the town of Dreamweaver, where no one seemed to question the presence of the heroes and the villains, having just move the town following his parents and working in their bar. It set him in an ideal starting spot, from what Marley told him, as he had reason to interact with nearly all of the characters at some point or another, and that he would spend some time with Ethan in character initially, or so she thought, and that it would benefit him because Ethan was such a lovely person.

"So, there's one thing left for your skeleton," Marley said. Kurt raised his eyebrow at her. They had covered a lot more about his history than he was expecting, and couldn't think of anything that they could have possibly missed. "You need a name."

"How did the rest of you come up with your names?" Kurt asked.

"Let's see... I accidentally named my character after a Pokémon- it's just what happened when Leo was the one to help me make her, the way I'm helping you. The heroes have bird imagery and the villains have cats. Unique has always chosen that name for herself, but Hutchsworth- that's because she couldn't pick between Josh Hutcherson and Liam Hemsworth. I think Jeff and Nick used a name generator."

"I think I have an idea. Marley, who is your favourite Degrassi couple?"

"Peter and Darcy," she answered quickly. Kurt considered it for a moment.

"Darcy Peterson."

"I love it. Kurt, you're so good at this!" Marley complimented, "I'm glad we're getting Darcy in Dreamweaver." Kurt had no idea what kind of drama his humble bartender could stir up, but he was excited to find out.


	2. Getting Into It

**To : **Kurt Hummel _(KurtEHummel) _**and **Marley Rose _(arosebyanothername)_

**From: **Luke Gautier _(LGautier)_

**Subject: **Mr. Peterson

Hey Kurt and Marley,

I've added Kurt and Darcy to the larpwriter, which means Kurt, you are all set to start playing as soon as you like. Our Monday session will be at Ethan's house this week, but we totally understand if you don't want to start until our Wednesday session at the park.

If you have any questions, just let me know.

Luke

* * *

**To: **Luke Gautier _(LGautier)_

**From: **Kurt Hummel _(KurtEHummel)_

**Subject: **Questions

Hi Luke,

I was just wondering what the actual process of the LARP is? No one has ever actually told me what I'm meant to do- so how exactly does a normal session go? Sorry if that's a bit vague.

Kurt

* * *

**To : **Kurt Hummel _(KurtEHummel) _

**From: **Luke Gautier _(LGautier)_

**Subject: **RE: Questions

No, I get what you mean. You've just watched a couple of sessions and need some clarity about what happens.

So on Wednesdays (would I be right in assuming that you're skipping Monday because otherwise you'll be at a near stranger's house?) we all meet at the park about five (our Dalton students need to drive over, plus many of them have other commitments earlier in the afternoon), arriving in costume. Once enough people arrive, we opt to begin the session, and then as the others arrive they simply join in when they're ready.

Once you're IC (in character), we discourage going OOC (out of character) until the conclusion of the LARP session, although there are exceptions. To end the session, usually after about three quarters of an hour, we all tap the bench twice, to signify that we are going OOC. Once the whole group has ended, we have a little debrief, any major plot developments can be discussed, and we decide details for the next sessions. After the session people tend to stick around for a bit to chat with one another.

During the session your character simply interacts with others. Try to have discussions with several other characters. Develop relationships. It will all come together in the end. To begin with Darcy will probably interact a lot with Constable Carlton (he has some drinking issues), and soon enough the heroes for news articles. Don't be too surprised if the villains attack the bar, however...

Hopefully that cleared it up a bit. The best way to learn is just to play!

Luke

* * *

The next Wednesday became a very busy one for Kurt. All morning he was excited for his first proper LARP session that evening, he was refusing to speak in English until after his French presentation at ten, and he had glee after school. He barely had time to listen to Mercedes and Tina as they chatted away by his locker in between classes. "I'll be right back," Kurt announced, closing his locker, much to the surprise of his friends.

"Where are you going, Kurt?" Tina asked, sounding concerned.

"I just have to say hi to someone. I'll be right back." He didn't even give his friends a chance to reply before he darted across the hallway. "Marley, hi!" he said, startling the girl. She turned quickly, her guard clearly up, before she saw Kurt and softened.

"Hey, Kurt!" she replied.

"I never see you at school. This is kind of weird, huh?"

"It's a little bit weird," Marley said with a laugh, "you can go now, if you want. I know hanging out with a freshman won't help your social status."

"Honey, I'm in _glee club_. I can't get any lower around this place."

"Are you coming to the LARP tonight? I can't wait until Glam and Darcy have the chance to interact. I just really love him as a character already."

"Yeah, of course. I've been looking forward to it all week-" Kurt didn't even hear the sound of footsteps behind him, didn't feel the looming presence of his tormentor. He was simply cut off mid-sentence by a cascade of frozen slush being tipped down the back of his shirt.

"I thought you didn't like pussy, fairy! No need to lead little girls on, homo!" Karofsky said, "What happened to all your glee fags? None of those boys would sleep with you and you had to turn to a girl who would suck your dick?" Karofsky swiped Kurt behind the knees, sending him to the floor to sit the puddle the red dye that had dribbled from his shirt had formed. When Kurt dared to look up, Karofsky had faded into a swarm of red letterman jackets, and Marley was looking horrified.

"Are you okay?" Kurt asked up at her. He was used to dealing with Karofsky and his group of jocks, but he hated to think that he had just dragged another innocent person into it with him. He clambered to his feet and repeated his question, "Marley, are you okay?" She nodded timidly.

"Kurt, oh my goodness... you should go and get cleaned up. I'll see you tonight." Marley was gone before Kurt could reassure her that he was okay. Mercedes and Tina were still standing at his locker when he got to it to retrieve his spare clothes. They barely even noticed the way he squirmed, and seemed to let it go a whole lot more easily than they used to. He wondered when they stopped acting as if they cared.

Somehow, with a lot of difficulty, Kurt dragged himself through the rest of the school day, counting the minutes in all of his classes. He made it to glee in one piece and clapped along with everyone else at the end of a solo performance by Rachel which maybe wasn't completely on theme, argued half heartedly about song choices for Sectionals and didn't even bother to put up his hand when they voted. He spent as much of the time as he could manage scrolling through plot summaries in the Dreamweaver Facebook group of past sessions, trying to get some grip on the history of the town. Darcy was about to be thrown into the deep end, and Kurt wasn't sure whether to feel thrilled or terrified.

* * *

He arrived at the park a little bit earlier than Luke had told him to and waited, in what little costume he had designated to be Darcy's look. He had chosen a leather jacket that he seldom wore and, as an extra accessory which he felt he might need come summer time when the jacket was too much, a pair of aviators.

Luke, Erica and Hadley were the first to arrive at the park, and they instantly approached Kurt. Luke was in his full white spandex suit, complete with cape. Erica was wearing her black body suit and cat ears, which had an elaborately bejewelled J on the back. Hadley was in much the same position as Kurt and wore simply her leopard print cardigan by way of costume. "Hey Kurt!" Erica greeted, "I looked over Darcy's profile. Nice work."

"Thanks," Kurt replied, "Marley was really helpful. I'm still not really positive I know what I'm doing."

"Just make yourself completely and utterly the character. The second we start the session, you leave Kurt behind. Everything Kurt might be thinking and feeling is irrelevant, because Darcy is in control."

"What if I'm not good enough at acting for this?"

"Then Darcy becomes sort of a reflection of you, which isn't that terrible. He can be a bit like you, so long as he's still his own person, in a way. But it's improv. There are no scripts for you to memorise. Just do whatever you feel like doing." Kurt nodded, hoping that what Erica said would prove to be of some use to him.

Blaine, Nick and Jeff all arrived at the same time, each in costume. Blaine was the only one with a bodysuit, whereas Nick and Jeff were both in civilian costume- each with a signature piece here and there, same as Kurt. Blaine's dark spandex wasn't something Kurt felt as though he could get bored of, and it certainly showed of that Blaine had some nice assets. Marley and Unique walked up to the slowly growing group together, too.

"Haven't Leo and Ethan come in yet? Ethan's car is parked out there," Marley informed the group.

"Who knows what they could be doing?" Hadley said, with an air of absolute innocence. No one else seemed to feel the same way.

"Honey, _everyone _knows what they're doing," Unique replied, earning an _mmhmm_ from Erica.

"They'll turn up in their own time. I think we should get started, anyway," Luke said authoritatively, and the group quietened, "as most of you are aware, today is Kurt's first LARP with us. Darcy will be working in the bar here in Dreamweaver and has a bit of a journalism thing, but let's not spoil his whole life story for your characters, hmm? Okay, let's get started." The group dispersed, and Kurt watched as the characters that the group adopted grew on them. Marley's broad smile dropped to a smirk as she followed along behind Erica, whose eyes began to pierce through the heroes. Nick and Jeff were obviously the most similar to their characters, as they both immediately raced for the small playground. Soon Kurt was left standing by himself, helplessly looking around at the smaller groups, knowing that he had to wait for the others to come to him.

Kurt felt a tap on his shoulder, and he turned to find Hadley and Unique, each looking purely bitchy. "Can I help you?" Kurt asked.

"Strawberry daiquiri," Unique said, "and the best gossip that you can serve up."

"And a Cosmo for me," Hadley added. Even with some confusion, Kurt suddenly caught on to what was happening. He wasn't sure how to feel with his first encounter, but he realised that his own thoughts and feelings didn't matter. It was all down to what it was that Darcy felt about the situation. And to Darcy Peterson, serving women cocktails was just daily business.

"Do you have an ID to go along with that order?" he asked, looking up and down at Hadley. The blonde was tiny and really didn't pass for anything over fourteen, let alone twenty-one. Her mouth dropped open in surprise, which Kurt mentally reminded himself wasn't Hadley's reaction, but her character's. He wondered when this kind of acting would begin to feel natural to him, because at that moment everything felt forced- but whenever he looked at anyone else, it seemed like it was the easiest thing in the world.

"I am Yvonne Tigressa! I shouldn't require identification, thank you!"

"Excuse me, miss, but you don't look twenty-one. I can't morally serve you alcohol without ID." At that Hadley giggled.

"Oh, you really think so?" she turned to Unique and said, "I think the snake venom facials are working, darling!"

Unique lifted her hand to her face. "Mm, still so smooth," she agreed.

"And are _you_ over twenty-one? I can't morally seduce you without ID," Hadley purred flirtatiously to Kurt. He cleared his throat.

"Uh, yes, but that's beside the point. ID?"

"I don't have ID, but I have a Wikipedia page. And if _that _says that I started modelling at eighteen, and that was five years ago, do you think that I'm younger than twenty-one?"

Kurt sighed, rolling his eyes. "Alright, ladies, it's a small town, I'm new around here, no one else seems to ever ask for ID... I'll let it slide. But if word gets out about this and you two are actually underage? Then you're filling my pay check in the event my parents won't."

"Money isn't an issue with us, darling," Unique said, "You can have a generous tip, too." After a small pause in which Unique mimed handing over cash and Kurt in turn mimed mixing their drinks, Unique spoke again. "You didn't fill the gossip order."

"I haven't been here long enough to really know anything that's been happening. You two are the town's rumour mill?"

Hadley nodded. "Mmhmm. Being the rich, famous actress that Unique Hutchsworth is and the rich, famous model that Yvonne Tigressa is, it's a miracle you haven't heard of either of us."

"I've been living under a bit of a rock, lately, I was studying overseas," Kurt explained on Darcy's behalf.

"Oh, well that makes perfect sense then. My film didn't really make it very big internationally," Unique said.

"Maybe you two need to get me caught up. Are you regulars at the bar, or-" Kurt stopped midsentence as Hadley and Unique looked shocked at something happening behind him. He hesitated for a moment before turning around to find Marley standing behind him.

"Hello," Marley said calmly, but with a countenance completely different to what he would expect from the shy girl. Everything about her felt villain, in the way she carried herself and addressed him. It amazed Kurt how solidly Glameow she could be. She slowly stepped closer. "We can do this the easy way or the hard way, Peterson."

"What do you want from me?" Kurt asked, taking a step back, only to be pushed forward again by a gentle shove from Hadley.

"I don't care for you. I care for the money in the register behind you."

"How did you even get in here? We didn't hear the door," Kurt said. How was he supposed to play interaction with a villain? Was stalling until some form of help arrived what he was meant to be doing? No one seemed upset with his choice of words, and so they continued. Marley pointed above them to nothing in particular.

"I'm a good climber. And your skylight is open, which did make this easier."

"You don't want my money," Kurt said, though he turned his head to see what the disturbance on his left was. Blaine and Luke were talking near them, probably 'outside the bar'. He tried not to focus on them, and instead on Marley who was slinking closer, "the alcohol... the spirits are probably worth more than you'll find in the register." The buzz from the boys was constant, and Kurt picked up a _"First solo mission," _alongside a declaration that _"Glameow is my rival; I need to do this sooner or later, White! You can't keep taking all the glory!" _

Marley cocked her head at Kurt in intrigue. "Bottles don't transport as well as cash."

"And how are you transporting the cash? You don't have a cliché bag with a dollar sign on."

"My bra. It helps that Nightbird is terrified of breasts," Marley said plainly. She stepped left, and Kurt stepped to meet her, blocking her path again. "Hey, play nice now, Darcy. Let me get close enough to touch it before your beloved heroes show up."

"How do you know my name?" Kurt asked. They hadn't discussed any back story between them.

"I know a lot of things. I have tabs on everyone in Dreamweaver, don't flatter yourself. So now, if you would be so kind as to just-"

"Yeah right," Blaine said, stepping neatly behind Marley and restraining her hands. She fought against it and Kurt turned back to Hadley and Unique.

"Sorry for the disturbance," he said, as Marley jumped onto Blaine's back, and he fell down at the impact. Kurt wasn't sure how he was supposed to respond, or even whether he should inquire about Blaine's safety. He seemed okay, though Kurt was soon distracted by the girls.

"The things I would do to that boy," Hadley said, "shame he won't let the Tigress prowl."

"This sort of thing happens a lot around here?" Kurt asked. Unique nodded.

"All the time. It's almost unusual if you don't witness a break in of some sort in a week."

"You win!" Marley yelled, catching the attention of all three of the bystanders. Blaine was standing above her, his foot resting on her stomach. She held up an imaginary wad of cash, which Blaine took from her. He lifted his foot, and Marley clambered ungracefully to her feet. "What are you doing with me this time, huh?"

"You don't have to do this," Blaine said calmly, a hand on her shoulder, "You know White Wings would train you up, too. JetCat doesn't want a villain to contend with."

"I just have to prove that I can do it," Marley said, "it's important to me." Blaine sighed, and released his hand. He stepped around her to restrain her hands again, but as soon as he moved, she ran away, only stopping when she hit the spot that Erica was sitting in.

"She got away again. Well, at least she was empty handed," Blaine said, stepping towards the small group. "You're new in town," he stated, looking Kurt over.

"I am," he replied. Blaine raised an eyebrow at the girls, who quickly left the pair alone too. Blaine cleared his throat.

"Well, first thing first. This belongs to you," he said, passing Kurt the imaginary money, which he in turn put into the imaginary cash register. It felt silly, but then again, it had been Blaine who had passed it to him.

"Thanks," Kurt said, "I didn't even notice her taking it."

"She's agile, to say the least. Did you hear her breaking in?"

"Not at all."

"She's good, but she isn't the best that Dreamweaver has... not to scare you away again or anything. We don't get many attractive guys around here, it would be a shame to lose you," Blaine said. Kurt blushed furiously, unsure how to properly respond to such a blatant flirt. He shook it off, reminding himself that it was for Darcy, from Nightbird. He needed to separate the two- otherwise his attraction to Blaine would only become more heartbreaking in the end.

"You must scare them all away with how high the standard has been set by the heroes," Kurt flirted back. He was surprised he had ever even managed to think up a line like that. Maybe Darcy really was growing his own person after all.

"I bet you say that to all the heroes who save you from robberies."

"This would be my first robbery to be saved from."

"That's not a no," Blaine said, winking at him. How could Kurt possibly top that? It didn't even come off as trying too hard or an inappropriate come on- it felt like it stepped out of an old movie and Blaine was the charming boy with a leather jacket.

"It's not."

"I'm Nightbird," Blaine introduced.

"The nocturnal avenger," Kurt supplied, to which Blaine grinned, "I've heard plenty about you. I'm Darcy."

"Well, Mister Darcy, I hope to see you again. Maybe under more pleasant circumstances, with less victimisation; though I don't mind coming to your rescue."

"All part of the job, right?"

"The rescues, sure. But not often the saving cute boys." Kurt felt a blush rise in his cheeks. Blaine cleared his throat. "Well, I'd better be going. Have a nice evening, Darcy." Blaine saluted Kurt quickly, before turning to leave himself. The way he said his name so softly made Kurt wonder if there was something more to all the flirting- because he knew that he definitely wouldn't mind if that was the case.

He filled up the rest of the session by sitting down with Unique and Hadley again, as they filled him in on the recent events in Dreamweaver. They had plenty of questions to fire his way about Darcy's encounter with Nightbird, and he was more than happy to share some of the basics. He kept a small few words to himself, the tiniest details that he was storing away so that he could use them himself later. Blaine had a way of making him feel like he could actually believe that he was as attractive as the flirts suggested that he was.

"I just have one question to ask," Kurt said, and the girls turned to him attentively, "is Nightbird gay?"

Hadley sighed. "No one knows for sure. He hasn't ever had a girlfriend, and I've never managed to seduce him."

"Honey, you've never managed to seduce anyone," Unique replied.

"But labels just aren't a big deal in Dreamweaver, though I get that they are elsewhere. It's just that if you like someone, then you should date them, and no one really cares who makes the couple."

"That's... really great. No one here really cares?" Kurt asked.

"Not at all." And that was when Kurt realised that maybe he had finally found a place- even the most fictional of towns- where when he was told no one cared about his sexuality, he actually believed it.


	3. Safe Space

The session ended and Kurt excused how silly it felt to tap the bench, the same as everyone else had. He had surprised himself with how much he had enjoyed the session, how easily Darcy had come to him. Of course, flirting with cute boys was always a plus, and he hadn't found that in glee, no matter what suspicions he had about Sam. But above all else, he felt for once as though he had been truly accepted by the group in a way that the glee club didn't quite manage. With glee, everyone had enough personal drama that Kurt's life got swept under the rug, and quite frankly, all he wanted to feel like he was wanted again. And here he had found another group, which actually made him feel wanted.

"We just have a couple of notices," Erica started, silencing the group, "this Saturday we have the monthly plotter, and we would really love if you could all be there. They're really important to the overall storyline of the roleplay. Besides, they're really important for establishing relationships, but you can still do that in your own time. And ICC and stuff, yeah?"

"ICC?" Kurt whispered to Marley.

"In Character Chat," Marley replied. Kurt nodded. He was going to need to make a glossary for all of the terms that he had acquired.

"We have some big ideas in store for Dreamweaver, so you all should get excited. Any questions?" the group stayed silent, and so Erica dismissed them.

"So what's going on with Darcy and Nightbird? Tell me!" Marley said excitedly.

"I don't really know," Kurt admitted, "they flirted a bit, but I need to ask Blaine, and-" Kurt looked around at the group, but Blaine was already gone. Apparently, any plotting had to wait. "It doesn't matter right now. If something happens then you'll be right there to know about it, right?"

"Right!" Marley agreed.

"Oh, and by the way, I'm sorry about what Karofsky said today. You know none of that was true, right?" Karofsky's words echoed in his mind- _you had to turn to a girl who would suck your dick? _The last thing Kurt needed was for Karofsky to scare away his potential new friend, and he wanted Marley around in his life. He could use all the friends he could get.

"Yeah, I know," Marley said, offering a supportive smile, "does that sort of thing happen to you a lot?"

"Yeah, but it's alright."

"No, Kurt, it isn't. Does the school know?"

"They don't do anything about it. I've been taking slushies for a long time, even pre-Glee."

"That's awful."

"You shouldn't worry about me." Kurt knew she was just concerned about his wellbeing, but he was also hopeful that she meant it when she said was all right. She seemed pretty shaken earlier in the day.

"Hey, Kurt, it's okay. At least you have this as a safe space, right?" Marley said. Kurt nodded.

"Are we friendly enough that I can hug you now?" Kurt asked, because honestly, he just needed a hug then.

"Of course." Marley held her arms open and let Kurt hug her, closing her arms around him firmly. "I don't believe in doing hugs by halves," she whispered to him, and all he could do was laugh slightly at the sentiment.

* * *

On Friday, Marley tapped Kurt's shoulder hesitantly in the hallway. He turned around to expect far more than the shy girl who stood there, but he wasn't disappointed by the surprise. "Hey!" he greeted, "it's not any less weird the second time." Marley laughed and tightened her hold on the books she was carrying.

"I know! I was just wondering whether or not you were going to go to the social tonight," Marley said.

"Oh, well, I hadn't really thought about it. I don't want to intrude on the group too much too soon, and isn't there a plotting thing tomorrow?"

"Yeah! So tonight is at Luke and Erica's place, and you can kind of turn up whenever, if you're interested. We usually just watch a movie or something, tease Leo and Ethan about how they aren't out doing something with their Friday, _you _can flirt with Blaine, the usual."

"I can't flirt with him, Marley, I don't know how," Kurt said, "And you're going to be there?"

"That's the plan. Luke and Erica will be there, obviously, and probably Hadley with them. And I'll be having a sleepover with Unique, if you wanted to come? I mean, you don't have to do anything. But the invitation is always there." Marley smiled, and Kurt returned the smile. He wasn't really sure whether or not it was place to go along, or if he would even be wanted by anyone other than Marley.

"I have a family dinner tonight, but I might come along after," Kurt said, making sure that he made no promises. Marley's phone buzzed in her hand, and she quickly opened the message.

"Oh, look at that! Blaine can actually come this week!" Marley said, "I'll see you later, Kurt." She turned into a classroom as they passed it, and suddenly, Kurt couldn't wait until the social.

* * *

"Hey, dad? I'm going to go out after dinner, okay?" Kurt said as he flitted around the kitchen, preparing a few things for dinner alongside Carole. Friday night dinners had always been a tradition in the Hummel household, and the arrival of his new stepmother and stepbrother hadn't altered it in the slightest. It gave Kurt some company while he cooked, and he had another person with hands to slap away from the meal he was preparing, but the family had slotted together _almost_ seamlessly.

"Where are you off to?" Burt asked. Kurt sighed before he responded. He had been expecting the question, since Burt had always been a protective father. He knew that Burt only wanted to know where he could find him in an emergency, or whom he had to hunt down in the case that Kurt was hurt, but it could be a little tiresome.

"A friend's house."

"Which friend?" Burt asked suspiciously, "Tina? Mercedes?"

"Um, no, they're new friends. Erica and Luke," Kurt said, "they host a little gathering every Friday night and a bunch of people who I know from _outside_ school are going to be there, and I really want to go."

"Will there be alcohol?"

"Absolutely not, Luke's younger sister will be there and she's like, thirteen. Luke and Erica are engaged and responsible adults, dad," Kurt threw in, hoping that would make him more lenient.

"Be home by eleven," Burt said, returning to his paper. Finn popped into the kitchen at that moment and didn't hesitate to show that he had a problem with Kurt going out.

"Eleven?" Finn said, "Mom, my curfew is only half past ten! That isn't even fair!"

"And where are you going tonight, mister?" Carole asked, putting down her knife and folding her arms across her chest, showing Finn that she was fully attentive.

"Puck's house," Finn answered.

"And will there be alcohol?" Carole waited for a response or an excuse, before Finn shook his head. "You hesitated."

"Mom!"

"Ten thirty for you. Burt and I will have a discussion about this later, but until then, curfews will stay as usual, okay?" Carole picked her knife up again and continued to chop the vegetables.

"No fair," Finn grumbled, "Kurt gets _everything_."

"The rules will change when Kurt starts behaving more like you do, right?" Carole winked at Kurt, who smiled timidly at his step-mom. He knew what she meant. As it stood, Kurt wasn't one for after school activities, whereas Finn didn't usually come home until half an hour before dinner. If Kurt _was _out, someone knew where he was, his phone was charged and on him, and he would answer calls from his parents. He wasn't late, and if he even thought he ever would be, he made sure that he texted or called Burt to let him know. Maybe most importantly, he didn't hang out with Puck regularly, and he wasn't dating anyone. Although it shouldn't have had anything to do with curfew, he also suspected that the fact he helped out with cooking and cleaning was in his favour. Finn grumbled some more, but he left the kitchen soon enough to grumble elsewhere.

* * *

After dinner, Kurt was quick to leave the house, fuelled with excitement for the evening ahead. Not really wanting to turn up by himself, he had offered a ride to Marley and Unique, who he picked up from Marley's house. They proved useful in directing him to Erica and Luke's house, since they had been there on plenty of other nights. Kurt was quick to pick up that Unique was transgender (and that she had seen plenty of the New Directions' videos with Marley and had dubbed herself the love child of he and Mercedes), and that Unique was at Carmel High, where she wouldn't join Vocal Adrenaline for much the same reasoning as Marley not joining the New Directions- she was terrified of Jesse St. James, who had been their lead vocalist up until that year. Kurt sympathised- he had never been a fan of Jesse, and after the way he had acted during his brief time in New Directions his dislike for him had only solidified. Even Kurt had to admit he was talented as a performer though, and definitely intimidating with his stage presence.

Kurt parked in the large carport outside Luke and Erica's house and followed Marley and Unique into the house- they walked right in without knocking- and subsequently to the living room. "Hey guys!" Luke greeted, walking over to talk to them, "you know where everything is, right?" he asked Marley and Unique, who nodded, "and Kurt, this is your first time to Casa de Gautier."

"Gautier-_Leathart_," Erica corrected from across the room, "we aren't married yet, kiddo."

"Like I was saying before I was _so rudely interrupted _by my lovely fiancée, this is your first time to Casa De Gautier-Leathart, and you require a grand tour. You know, so you at least know where we keep the sodas and where to find the bathroom." Luke gestured for Kurt to follow him and gave him a full tour of the house, which wasn't huge but was perfectly suitable for the engaged couple. It had a huge garden, but the house itself was tiny for the property size. The couple didn't seem to own a lot of furniture, and the spare bedrooms were almost empty. "I think the idea of the house being small is that we, as the new owners, would renovate and expand, but we have no reason to just yet," Luke explained.

When they got back to the living room Marley and Unique were sitting down, each with a can of soda, and Kurt sat next to them. He finally surveyed the room properly to see who had come along. Aside from Erica, Luke, and Hadley (who, from what Kurt understood, were the staple three members), Unique, Marley and himself, were Leo and Ethan, sharing one of the armchairs, and Jeff, who was sitting on the floor by Erica, engrossed in the conversation. Kurt thought that he seemed a bit lost without Nick.

He didn't have much to contribute to any of the conversations that were going on around him, but he listened in to as many of them as he could. He felt himself getting distracted by his thoughts, which were dragged down by Blaine and his notable absence. He had told Marley he would be there, hadn't he? "Are you alright, Kurt?" Luke asked, startling Kurt from his daydreaming.

"Huh?"

"Can I get you a drink or something? You sort of spaced out there."

"Oh, um, a diet coke, please." Luke nodded and headed off to the kitchen, while Kurt sat up a bit straighter and tried to tune back into Marley and Unique's conversation with Hadley. It had moved on too far from when he had phased out for him to really understand what they were talking about properly.

"You did really well on Wednesday," Luke complimented, handing Kurt the can, "You seemed like a seasoned pro. I wouldn't have guessed that it was your first session."

"Thanks." Kurt forced a smile, despite how uneasy he felt. He was glad to hear that he had done okay. Luke's phone began to ring and he pulled it from his pocket, glancing down at the screen.

"It's Nick, I should take this," Luke said to Kurt, who nodded as Luke swiped at the screen and lifted the phone to his ear. "Nick?" Kurt could hear a voice from the other end, but in nowhere near enough definition to work out what he was saying. "Okay. No, it's fine. Should I come and get you? Sure. Yeah, I'll see you soon." Luke hung up and put the phone back into his pocket. "Blaine and Nick aren't too far away, they just had a few car problems so they're going a little slow," he explained to the group. So that explained Blaine's absence and he was still going to be there. That was enough to make Kurt stay longer. Luke got up again to do something elsewhere, and that left Kurt by himself once more.

He was startled from his daydream again when Jeff scrambled to his feet and dashed across the room, throwing his arms around one of the new arrivals. "Nicky!" he yelled, hugging Nick tightly. Blaine looked tiny and lonely in comparison to the pair, as he quietly walked around them into the room. He smiled at Kurt, and Kurt felt his heart do somersaults as Blaine walked over to him.

"Hey," Blaine greeted, sitting down on the couch next to him, "how are you?"

"Good," Kurt said, and immediately scolded himself for it being the best he could come up with on the spot.

"I haven't properly introduced myself to you, and my parents would be appalled. I'm Blaine, and I play Nightbird." He extended his hand, and Kurt shook it.

"I'm Kurt. I play Darcy, but I'm really new to all that."

"You would never have guessed. It's a little odd that our characters met first, huh?" the way that Blaine grinned at Kurt could make anyone melt, and Kurt did the best he could to physically _not _disappear into the seat.

"Not to completely change the topic, but who drove over?" Kurt asked.

"Nick did, but it's my car," Blaine said, too quickly, as though he was a child trying to impress Kurt with the details of the possession. He wasn't entirely sure that it wasn't the case, but he didn't dare ask.

"Would you mind if I took a look at it?" Blaine nodded, though he was visibly shocked at the question, and led Kurt out to his car. "Sorry," he said, "I fix things when I get nervous. I don't have any costumes to straighten or make up to touch up." Kurt lifted the hood and effortlessly began to check off what the problem likely wasn't, until he reached a final decision. "I'm not exactly an expert, but I think that you need to change the oil."

"Look who the hero is now," Blaine said, "thank you, Kurt."

"You're welcome. My dad's a mechanic, so I'm kind of used to being around this stuff. Am I interested enough to inherit the shop? No, not at all, but I do know enough to solve the basics." Blaine laughed, much to Kurt's delight, and stood close enough to him to bump shoulders as they walked inside.

All too soon they got swept up in different conversations and then it was ten-thirty what felt like only a minute later, and Kurt decided to head home. Burt and Carole were glad to see him home before curfew (especially since Finn hadn't stuck to his and was late), and he went to bed with thoughts of Blaine drifting through his head. _Look who the hero is now_, Kurt repeated to himself, and he was sure he slept with a smile on his face.

* * *

Kurt finally came down from his Blaine induced daydream by lunchtime the next day. His good mood didn't go unnoticed by his family, and Carole was quick to ask what had him in such high spirits as she watched Kurt dart around the kitchen, preparing his meal. "It's nothing," Kurt said, closing the fridge. Carole obviously didn't believe him, but she didn't push the subject any further. He wondered how long it would take her to pester it out of him.

He tried to get some homework done that afternoon before the plotting session that evening, but quickly got distracted by his open Facebook page. He clicked the small red (1) hovering above the friend request icon, and saw enough to send his heart soaring again. _Blaine Anderson, four mutual friends._ He clicked the accept button without a second thought, but then couldn't get any more work done with his thoughts trained on Blaine.

He didn't expect to have a chat window pop up in the corner of the screen, and had to give himself a moment to compose before he even dared to think of a reply.

**Blaine: **_Hey, Kurt :D _

**Blaine: **_Are you going to be at the plotter tonight? _

**Blaine: **_I have a couple of things to talk about before then._

Of course, a polite, all business message. He rolled his eyes at how he had so quickly blown the situation out of proportion.

**Kurt: **_Hi :) Yeah, I'll be there._

**Kurt: **_What did you want to say?_

**Blaine: **_It's about our characters. I think I have a plot for them._

**Blaine: **_Only if you're comfortable with it, though. I wanted to ask before the plotter so I didn't embarrass you (or myself) tonight_

Blaine had been planning a plot for them, that he wasn't sure Kurt would be comfortable with. He was very, very intrigued.

**Kurt: **_I'm listening. Do tell._

**Blaine: **_I think that Darcy and Nightbird should be an item._

**Kurt: **_As in, they should date?_

**Blaine: **_Exactly._

Kurt grabbed his pillow from his bed and squealed into it, hoping like crazy that he had managed to be quiet enough for the sound not to travel out of his room.

**Kurt: **_That would be great :)_

**Blaine: **_I was just thinking that they were kind of flirty on Wednesday, and that was just their first meeting._

**Kurt: **_Yeah, I think it could be really fun to play, too._

**Blaine: **_Definitely! _

**Blaine: **_They can ease into it, it's probably not so wise for us to turn up on Monday and announce their relationship._

**Kurt: **_They need to figure it out for themselves still ;)_

**Blaine: **_hahaha, yes. _

**Blaine: **_I'm really glad that you joined that group, Kurt._

**Kurt: **_Me too._

* * *

Kurt made an effort to sit next to Marley at the plotting session, since she had so easily become one of his best friends. It seemed as though everyone from the roleplay was there, though he couldn't be sure if there were others he simply hadn't met yet. It was the most formally structured meeting Kurt had ever been to, as he found when Hadley passed him a print-out of the agenda. Erica stood at the front of the room fielding questions while Luke sat nearby with a laptop, taking notes.

"Anyone have anything else to add?" Erica asked, crossing _back stories_ from the big list on the whiteboard (which Kurt still couldn't believe they had set up for the meeting). The group remained silent, and she continued. "Great, next item, then. Changes to relationships? Just for the purpose of the larpwriter, so title changes, really. So like, acquaintances to friends, or enemies to friends, or friends to enemies. We don't care about the details." Kurt looked over at Blaine, who smiled gently at him from across the room.

"Nightbird and Darcy from 'professional relationship' to 'romantically involved'," Blaine said. Kurt immediately felt all ten pairs of eyes on him, and willed himself not to blush. Erica smirked, as though to convey that she had seen it coming, but turned to Luke and repeated it anyway.

"I thought you said you couldn't flirt," Marley whispered, nudging Kurt lightly.

"_I can't_. But as it turns out, Darcy's not so bad," he whispered back. Marley nodded knowingly, and didn't mind when Kurt dropped the topic in favour of listening to what Erica was saying.

The plotter didn't take as long as Kurt expected it to, and he couldn't wait to talk to Blaine after it ended- but it seemed as though as soon as Kurt worked up the nerve to approach him, he scanned the room, and Blaine was gone.

Erica walked over to him and greeted him by saying, "so Darcy and Nightbird are getting it on, huh?"

"They aren't even dating yet. They flirted _once_, and then Blaine and I decided that it's a plot worth playing out," Kurt said, trying to sound detached from the situation.

"No correlation to anything happening out of character, then?" Erica asked, raising an eyebrow, "you ought to get cosier to make it obvious for us all. Be more like Leo and Ethan!" she gestured to the couple, who were standing almost literally joined at the hip as they talked to Marley.

"There's nothing to make obvious. I've barely even talked to Blaine. He just runs off so quickly."

"Yeah, he has some family stuff going on, I think. And he's way shyer than he lets on. Like, he is such a performer, he definitely loves the limelight, but then you take him off a stage and he just falls apart at the seams as soon as you try to ask him any serious questions. He's a master of small talk, though. He just has... high walls. He won't let anyone in too quickly."

"So he doesn't usually hang around for any of this social stuff?" Kurt clarified.

"Yeah, last night was the first time he had been to a social in months. And you know there's only one thing that's changed in the group since last week." Erica winked at him, watching as the information settled with him. "I'll see you later, Kurt."

If Blaine had been mysterious before, he was an enigma now- a puzzle that Kurt hoped he could solve. He was falling for him fast as it was, and it both terrified and excited him just how much harder he could crash if Blaine would let him in.

* * *

_A/N: Thank you all for the follows/favourites/reviews so far, I'm so happy that you're enjoying it! I don't really have a post schedule, but it seems to be about every six days. More or less a chapter a week, anyway :) _


	4. Back Stories

Kurt was too stunned to speak, think, or feel. He was working purely on muscle memory, racing to his car and climbing inside, locking the doors around him and choking back a sob. Things had never been good with Karofsky, but this was so much worse. Kurt had no idea what had overcome him when he thought it had been a good idea to stand up to him, but now he was left with a whole new set of emotions.

Karofsky had taken away his first real kiss. Was he even gay? It certainly seemed that way, and the way that he was constantly picking on Kurt- every single insult being about his sexuality- it suddenly made sense for Karofsky to just be that deep in the closet.

He made it home in one piece, barely even registering that he had driven home, and stumbled into his bedroom before collapsing on the bed. He couldn't cry. He just didn't have it in him. He was just stunned beyond words, and his thoughts wouldn't shut up, replaying every moment of the awful kiss. He had made out with Brittany that one time, and had chosen not to count it, on the grounds that she wasn't a boy and he was gay. He didn't have the same excuse with Karofsky.

Kurt wanted his safe space. He wanted it to be five o'clock so he could go to Marley's house and slip on Darcy and leave Kurt and his problems behind.

He opened his laptop, and he began to write.

_When Darcy was seventeen he was kissed by his high school bully, _he started, and began to vent everything, changing the details enough to make it perfectly fictional. Then, he sent it to Luke so he could add the story to Darcy's profile. It might not have been the nicest or the best written back story, but it added some depth that the character so clearly needed.

Kurt's phone buzzed on the desk next to him within a matter of minutes.

**Luke G. **_Kurt, I just read your Darcy back story. Everything okay?_

**Kurt H. **_I think so. It will be, anyway._

**Luke G. **_Cool! Hey, I don't want to assume anything, but are you as not-straight as Darcy is?_

**Kurt H. **_I'm gay, yes. And so is Darcy._

**Luke G. **_Openly so?_

**Kurt H. **_Both of us._

**Luke G. **_Darcy is the second openly gay and fourth overall gay character. Just so you know._

**Kurt H. **_And out of character?_

**Luke G. **_You're the fourth there too, but they don't line up perfectly with the characters._

**Kurt H. **_Ah, okay. Thank you._

**Luke G. **_No worries. I just want you to know that you're perfectly accepted in our roleplay, sexuality or not. Dreamweaver has enough crazy stuff going on that two guys dating is barely a weird thing._

**Kurt H. **_And I'm glad it works that way :)_

* * *

Monday's session at Marley's house had been exactly what Kurt needed to get his upset over the Karofsky ordeal out of his head. Darcy manned the bar for the whole session and gossiped with the various civilian characters that he encountered, and the highlight of his night was when Nightbird swung by the bar to officially ask Darcy on a date.

On Wednesday they were back at the park, and Kurt focussed on keeping Darcy entertained until his big first date. "Carlton, don't you think you spend too much time here? Shouldn't you, I don't know, be on duty or something?" Kurt said to Ethan. He found that the most recent times he had been with the roleplay he had found it easier to slip into Darcy's life and mannerisms, and he consciously knew where it was that Darcy stopped and Kurt began. He was beginning to see that Darcy was a character, living in an entirely fictitious town, but that he still differed from Kurt in enough ways to almost be his own, full person.

"Hey, I just have a lot of time off at that moment. The heroes handle the big stuff, and that leaves me to run around after petty crimes, and that damn blond Hughes kid who is always getting himself into trouble," Ethan replied. Kurt had found that Darcy did indeed spend a lot of time with Constable Carlton, and as everyone had assured him that he would, he loved roleplaying with Ethan, because he was a genuinely lovely person out of character and wonderful at what he did when he was in Carlton's head.

"Braxton?" Kurt said, raising an eyebrow, "he's a good kid. Just a little bit attention seeking."

"You know him?" Kurt nodded.

"Family friend. Our mothers are really close. Hasn't stopped him from coming in here three times in the last week, though." Jeff has been the one to suggest the relationship between their characters. Enough to give them reason to interact, but not so much that it wasn't plausible. Kurt knew he would never have thought of it and was glad he had the more experienced people around him making decisions.

"His friend- the one with the brown hair who has too much enthusiasm- seems to keep him out of trouble. But lately that one's been a bit quieter, and I think he has a girlfriend or something."

"Girlfriend?" Kurt asked, knowing that there were only a handful of girls who were actively played in the roleplay, and none of them were interested in dating a high school aged character.

"Yeah, I think. He certainly seemed to blush a lot when I heard Braxton talking loudly to him about his 'special friend'."

"Have you thought that maybe... it's a not a girl?" Kurt said, "It's quite a gender neutral term. Maybe he has a boyfriend? Or maybe they just aren't ready to make it official?"

"Maybe. It doesn't bother me _that _much."

"I suppose it wouldn't." Kurt looked over to see that Blaine was walking over to them and smiled to himself, "hey, Carlton, not to drive you out, but we're closing up a little early tonight, okay?"

"Hey, it's fine. You're expecting company, aren't you?" Ethan winked at Kurt and clapped him on the shoulder. "I'll get out of your hair." Ethan scurried off towards Jeff, Nick and Leo before Blaine could even get close.

"Evening, Darcy," Blaine said as he approached the imaginary bar, "I believe we have a date tonight." Kurt could feel his heart doing somersaults. He immediately made sure to reality check himself- this was a date between Darcy and Nightbird, and he couldn't let any of his own feelings get in the way of what Darcy was going to get out of it.

"Indeed we do." Kurt pretended to walk around the bar that wasn't there and stepped towards Blaine. "What did you have in mind for this date?"

"I don't have a lot of time, so I was thinking that maybe we could just take a walk around the park. _I _just want to get to know you better."

"Will you fly me home at the end of the night?" Kurt said teasingly. Blaine pouted at him, folding his arms.

"I'm wounded. If you had asked nicely I might have considered it."

"Oh sweetie, I didn't know you were so self conscious about your flying abilities. I thought White Wings had raised you better than that," Kurt continued to tease.

"You're lucky you're cute." Blaine extended a hand to Kurt. He didn't hesitate for a moment before he took it, immediately captivated by how soft and strong Blaine's hand felt. He knew he had a huge crush on Blaine- he was never denying that- but he could have sworn that their hands fitted together almost too perfectly. "Besides, I'm an old fashioned kind of guy. I don't fly boys home until the third date, no matter how cute."

Kurt laughed. "Oh, fine then. So, Mister Nightbird, tell me more about you. How did you get into heroism?"

"Actually, it's kind of a long story. How close to the end should I start?"

"Start with how you began working with White Wings," Kurt suggested.

"Well, I was actually picked by JetCat for villainy, originally."

Kurt gasped dramatically. "What? No."

"Yes! I didn't work with her for very long. I only went on a couple of missions. She just wanted someone there to take the blame, which meant I spent a lot of time talking to White Wings. He told me that if I became his apprentice I wouldn't have to go to prison for it, since I apparently didn't actually look like a villain."

"Too much hair gel."

"Hey, no fair. Anyway, that's why I'm _Night_bird. She's Jet, as in jet black, and I needed an equally clever darkness. But by then the name had stuck, and the bird imagery fitted with White's anyway. So, what brings you to Dreamweaver, Darcy?"

"My family- I grew up north of elsewhere, moved across the country for university and studied in France for a year. While I was tripping around my family decided to move here and open the bar, or, as my dad says, The Peterson Family Tavern. I'm living at home until the lease for my new apartment comes through, and as soon as I can get my journalism break that's what I plan to do."

"But if you fall into just journalism you won't have a bar to defend anymore," Blaine said with a pout, "and I won't be able to flirt with you on the job. I doubt your parents are as much fun to do that with."

"Please don't hit on my parents." Blaine laughed.

"You think I'm just hitting on you because I hit on everyone?"

"_Should_ I think that?"

"Not at all. This is a proper date, okay? I really like you, and I want to get to know you better so I can keep liking you a lot."

"Good," Kurt said, "I like you a lot, too." Blaine smiled at him infectiously, and he just had to smile back.

"Do you know many people from around town yet?"

"Let's see... I know you. I've met Glameow," Blaine nodded as though to say _met, huh?_ "Unique Hutchsworth, who I'm told is very famous, and Yvonne Tigressa, who I'm told is also very famous, come by a lot and we gossip so they're the closest I have to friends. Constable Carlton spends quite a bit of time in here too, so we've talked a lot. And there's this kid, I don't know if you would know him, called Braxton Hughes. He's the blond one that's always getting into trouble, and he's a family friend. And that's everyone."

"You haven't even talked to White?" Blaine asked with mock surprise, "That couldn't possibly have anything to do with the fact that I've begged to take all the missions concerning you now, has it?"

"You do that?"

"Maybe. But now you've agreed to go out with me and I _know _you're just holding out for that third date when I'll fly you home, he can deal with the bigger stuff again."

"Well aren't you confident, mister. Who said the date was going so well that I wanted to commit to another _two_?" Kurt teased.

"You know, if you count the break in and the time I formally asked you to go with me, we've already had two dates and this is the third," Blaine said.

"So you want to fly me home now?"

"See! I knew you were just waiting for me to fly you somewhere." By the end of Darcy and Nightbird's date, Kurt was feeling a lot better than he had before he had come to the session. He had laughed a lot, and the banter was nice. He couldn't care less whether or not it had all been fictional. They stayed hand in hand as they walked over to the bench when they saw that the others were slowly migrating towards it, and just as they were getting there Blaine turned to Kurt. "I really hope that there will be another date, Darcy," he said.

Kurt nodded. "Absolutely." Blaine looked around quickly, before he leaned in and pressed a quick kiss to Kurt's cheek. He immediately tapped the bench twice, and Kurt followed promptly. He could have sworn Blaine hesitated for a moment before dropping his hand.

* * *

The next date for Darcy and Nightbird came sooner than Kurt expected. Blaine messaged him and informed him that he was going to be at the social on Friday, and asked if Kurt was going to be there not. Regardless of his plans (or lack thereof), Kurt was quick to decide that he was indeed going to be there.

When he arrived, he walked right into the house the same way all the others did the week before, and was greeted by everyone when he entered the living room. He even went as far as to help himself to a diet coke from the fridge before he sat down next to Leo and Ethan. Though he and Ethan had talked a lot in character, they had barely even spoken to each other out of character, and he wasn't sure he had so much as said hi to Leo. They were quick to fall into comfortable conversation, and Kurt realised how nice it was to have proper gay friends- because as much as Rachel Berry aspired to be one, she just didn't quite fit the criteria.

Erica popped over to their little group after a while and said, "We're going to have a social LARP tonight, if enough people are interested. Just like, half an hour, and soon."

"Yeah, that would be good," Ethan said, "but you will probably need to get off me, Leo." Leo shrugged and didn't go anywhere. Kurt was the first to take the cue to move.

"Uh, Erica," she turned to him, "what do we use to signify going out of character without the bench? When we're here?" He knew the drill for everywhere else. At Marley's house it was the TV, at Leo's it was the kitchen table, at Hadley's it was the bookcase, at Unique's it was walking back inside after spending the session in her garden away from her parents.

"Good point. We don't actually have a protocol in the same way for social LARPs, but unofficially I think it's the fridge. People tend to go and get another drink once they're ready to stop." Kurt didn't bother asking for any further direction. As soon as the session started, Blaine gravitated towards him, and almost wordlessly they found themselves sitting on the porch swing outside.

"Why are you doing it?" Kurt asked, "Being a hero, I mean."

"I have a lot of goals with it," Blaine replied.

"Do tell."

"I want to help people, obviously. I like to feel wanted- needed, even. And I want to be that first golden ticket superhero, the one who can proudly be the first openly gay superhero and empower a whole lot of kids along with it. I know it doesn't seem a lot in a town like Dreamweaver, but what if the message manages to spread across to another town or two? Then I'll really be making a mark."

"That's a nice goal."

"I feel like there's a story to go along with that sentiment," Blaine said. Kurt shook his head.

"Oh, it's nothing. But when I was back in high school, I really could have used a hero, and now I've finally got one." Blaine took his hand, running his thumb over the back of it soothingly.

"You have a whole team of Defenders, Ku-Darcy. There's nothing to be scared of here." Kurt pretended not to notice his slip.

"But what if one day I leave the town, for some reason? Then I've got all that stuff to face still."

"We can do it together, okay?" Blaine said. "Look at me. I'm here for you. It doesn't matter what's going on outside of Dreamweaver while you're living here, because the world- or at least the town- is your oyster. And if you ever feel like leaving, the town will do it can to make you stay. I'm not even kidding; they can pull some pretty big strings."

"Together, huh?" Kurt teased, "That sounds like a plan for the future."

"There are some awful people in the world, and I never want you to have to be caught up in any of that. If that means you're stuck with me forever, so be it."

"You don't sound too upset about that."

"I know this is a second date, Darcy, but I feel really good about it- about us."

"Me too, I-" Kurt started, before a figure jumped around the corner, startling him.

"Nightbird," Erica said, "pleasure as always." She walked slowly closer with a certain sway in her hips that Kurt didn't think he had seen from her before. He hadn't had a chance to observe Erica as so thoroughly JetCat before, since the week she had had her cast removed was the week Kurt had chosen to join in with the roleplay. His focus had been elsewhere ever since.

Blaine stood up, dropping Kurt's hand in the process. "What do you want, Jet?" he said with a sigh, sounding bored above anything else. "I'm off duty. Take it up with White."

"Oh, sweetie. We used to be such good friends. What happened to the adorable, villainous boy I groomed all those years ago? You're not even polite enough to introduce me to your friend here." She smiled sickly sweetly, and Blaine's hands twitched at his sides.

"You don't _get _to meet the people who are important to me! I know you have people to do your research for you, and I'm not going to make their job easier."

"But what if I wanted information about _you_? From _him_?" Erica stepped closer to the swing, closer to Kurt, and Blaine was quick to step between them.

"You're not going anywhere near him."

"Nightbird?" Kurt said quietly. Blaine turned to him and offered him a hand, so Kurt took it and stood up. Blaine took his hand again and looked him deep in the eyes.

"I'm sorry for messing up our date," Blaine said, "but I need you to go, Darcy."

"But... it was going so well..." Kurt said. He knew exactly what Blaine meant, but Darcy was completely cut up about it. Darcy couldn't believe that they were just talking about how well their relationship was going, and now Nightbird was asking him to leave. Blaine opened his mouth to say something, but Kurt cut in. "No, it's fine. You need to be someone else's hero. I'll get used to sharing." And then he left, heading back inside to wait for the session to end. It wasn't that he didn't want to play anymore, it was that he knew Darcy was standing squarely in a plot that he didn't need to be in that night. He wasn't sure whether to be thrilled or terrified to see how it would all develop on Monday.

Blaine found him in the kitchen after doing whatever it was with Erica, and Kurt smiled at him. "Kurt," Blaine said firmly, stopping him from running from the situation, "you were just being a convincing Darcy, right? You're not actually mad at me for telling you to leave? Because I didn't, I swear, it was just Nightbird. I still want to continue with our plot, if it's okay with you."

"Oh, yeah, I want to keep going with it too," Kurt said, "Darcy might be a bit upset, though."

"Speaking of which, I think I should give you some heads up, since Darcy won't get it- Erica has plans in the works for a full plot involving everyone. Tonight was just the first little piece of that. Jet's starting at Darcy, and slowly working to bring down the Defenders- which won't work, clearly- but there's a lot resting on the shoulders of the civilians. Great plot idea, except you... may find yourself kidnapped."

"Oh. Well, Darcy will get over that date, then. He might be a bit heartbroken come Monday, but once they click again he'll be fine."

"Right! That's good. I really like dat- roleplaying. I like roleplaying with you." Blaine blushed, and Kurt figured that was about his slip. He couldn't even bring himself to imagine how that could have finished, _I really like dating you _being the most obvious one on his mind. Things with Blaine just weren't like that, no matter how much flirted in character.

"Me too," Kurt said, offering Blaine a small smile.

When Kurt got home he avoided his parents and instead went straight to his bedroom. He threw himself face down on his bed and grinned into his pillow, because Blaine was _adorable_. It was a new feeling for him, certainly. Never before had he had such a sudden and strong reaction to another person. He wasn't in love with Blaine; he would never let himself jump immediately to that point. But he could definitely see himself being in love with him in the future. He lay on his bed for a long time, mustering up the courage to formulate a plan about when and how he would win Blaine over. He was silly to think that Blaine would ever like him, but he was so, so hopeful- and some days, when Blaine acted the way he had earlier, offering him support and flirting in character and blushing around him out of character... he could imagine the feeling being mutual.


	5. Serious Talk

Monday at school was no better than the week before. Kurt didn't even want to show up, but he didn't want to give the jocks the satisfaction, either. He needed to show Karofsky that he was untouchable. Between a stolen kiss and a death threat, Kurt wasn't thrilled at the prospect of seeing him.

The rest of the social on Friday night had been uneventful, but the talk that Darcy had had with Nightbird had helped a lot. He had chosen to take the advice to heart and remember that he had a whole crew of heroes to back him up and a town that never wanted him to leave. He wished that Blaine was there to offer him words of support through the day, to remind him about the heroes and keep him focussing on how the LARP that night would go, this week at Hadley's house.

His phone buzzed at the end of his first class for the day.

**Blaine A. **_You can be a hero yourself, Kurt._

**Blaine A. **_Courage._

Kurt didn't know how to reply, but he didn't think that Blaine needed a response. Kurt just smiled down at his phone, happy with how one tiny word could change so much.

It only took a few hours before Karofsky stopped helping Kurt feel like he was untouchable and started to attack him again. He seemed to have amped it up since the kiss, clearly trying to assert his 'heterosexuality' for his jock friends. "Hey, fairy!" he called, and Kurt just kept walking down the stairs to get to his class in the rapidly clearing hallway, "you like to spend time on your knees, right?" Karofsky taunted. The hair on the back of Kurt's neck began to rise as he felt someone walk up behind him. There was a hand on his back and a shove, and then everything went black.

* * *

Kurt didn't even remember what had happened when he woke up in the nurse's office with his dad standing over him, shaking his arm lightly.

"Kurt?" Burt asked gently, "You awake, buddy? The nurse says that I can take you home so long as you can stand up."

Kurt lifted his arm to rub his eye and winced at the shooting pain through it. "'m'wake," he grumbled, "I wanna go home now."

"The nurse said you had a pretty nasty fall. You're lucky not to have broken anything, but you hit your head, bud, completely blacked out. You might be a little concussed." Kurt sat up slowly and shakily got to his feet, looking around the room. Finn was sitting in a chair and looked petrified. "You can go back to class now, Finn. Kurt's up and he'll be fine." Kurt wasn't sure he believed that, but he was willing to pretend.

"Thanks for your help," the nurse said to Finn.

"What did he do?" Kurt asked. He really had no understanding of what had happened between Karofsky's hand on his back and him waking up in the nurse's office. He wanted to blame the concussion for that, but having fainted altogether really didn't help at all.

"His friend Noah found you during class and the boys carried you in here, since you were out. We decided not to ask what Noah was doing out of class."

"Well, it doesn't take much to guess when it's Puckerman," Kurt said.

"Not the point," Burt said, "he helped out, okay? Now let's get you home."

Kurt fell asleep as soon as got into his bed. He felt awful in every aspect of the word. He was dizzy, he couldn't look at his phone for his eyes being light sensitive, and he couldn't concentrate on anything. Every time he tried to do anything he found himself tuning out and completely forgetting the small details of everything going on. He wanted to vomit. To make everything worse, his whole body ached. He was a bit fuzzy on the details of the fall, which everyone told him was normal for a minor head injury, but he knew one thing- that he didn't fall at all. He was pushed.

Carole brought dinner up to his room and he thanked her for it, before realising that dinner time probably meant he had missed the LARP session and he hadn't even told anyone that he wasn't going to be there. He hoped he wasn't screwing up the plots too much by not being there.

When he finally braved squinting at his phone again, he had a handful of texts from various members of the roleplay.

**Blaine A. **_Are you coming tonight?_

**Blaine A. **_Looks like Nightbird is getting stood up tonight. Don't worry about it or anything, I hope you're okay?_

**Marley R. **_Are you avoiding us or something?_

**Luke G. **_Hey man, we missed you tonight. I take it that it was sudden, since no one knows where you are. Just let us know you're okay, Kurt. Unless you aren't. Then let us know how to fix it._

**Hadley G. **_B says ur ignrn hm. U rnt tho r u?_

**Erica L. **_Everyone is all worried about you all of a sudden but I told them you were probably fine and to stop worrying. Give me a call and I'll let you know what went down tonight when you're ready._

He wasn't sure how to react to the messages, and decided that Erica's was the most rational and that he would definitely need to call her as soon as he had texted the one person who was arguably more important.

**Kurt H. **_Sorry Blaine, it was a big day and I slept through the session. I doubt my dad would have let me go anyway :/ reschedule that date that Nightbird got stood up for?_

Erica answered on the second ring. _"Kurt! Nice to hear from you."_

"Hey, Erica. Sorry that I missed the session. Everything's fine, nothing to worry about."

"_Okay, that's great. Did you just get like, twenty-four hour flu, or...?"_ she asked.

"Um, no, I fell down some stairs and have been asleep for the last few hours, but nothing serious. I'll be back playing on Wednesday, promise." He didn't think he sounded very convincing, and Erica certainly didn't sound like she believed it either.

"_Alright, well, I'll let you go sleep some more or whatever. I'll let everyone know that you're okay. Nothing interesting happened; I put off the major plot until you were there. Darcy is kind of important."_

"Can you just mention that I'm not ignoring anyone and it just hurts to look at my phone too much?" Kurt asked.

"_Yeah, sure, I'll pass that on. Do you want me to tell them that you fell?" _Erica sounded concerned, but Kurt was glad that she gave him the option.

"Oh, no. I don't want to give them any reason to worry about me."

"_Okay, Kurt. Get better. We'll see you soon." _They said their goodbyes and Kurt hung up to see that a text had come through.

**Blaine A. **_Yeah, of course :) get some rest, Kurt._

He was asleep just about as soon as he finished his dinner.

* * *

Burt refused to let Kurt go to school the next day so that he could recover. He found himself on strict bed rest even without either of his parents there during the day to enforce it, simply because he found that every time he moved he had balance issues. It took him much longer than he was proud of to think about turning down the brightness on his phone, but once it was sufficiently dulled he was able to use it without any hassles.

He started by sending a text to Tina and Mercedes, versions of the same thing- telling them that he wasn't at school because he wasn't feeling very well, but not to visit. They agreed to organise people from his classes to inform him of the homework.

Kurt realised very soon that being stuck in bed all day was boring. He had nothing to do and no one to entertain him, and he couldn't very well get up to collect anything without living in fear that he would fall over or drop something. Carole had brought him water bottles and food to last him the day so he didn't have to make it any further than his desk to get lunch or snacks, and the bathroom was close enough that he didn't worry about it too much. He did have his phone though, and he thought that it could be enough.

**Kurt H. **_Are you in class?_

**Blaine A. **_Yeah, aren't you?_

**Kurt H. **_...and you're going to risk texting me?_

**Blaine A. **_Indeed, but you didn't answer my question._

**Kurt H. **_I'm not. I'm at home on strict recovery._

**Blaine A. **_I hope you feel better soon :) need entertaining, then?_

**Kurt H. **_Yes! Not to distract you from your studies, or anything._

**Blaine A. **_It's fine, it isn't like it's an important class and it's nearly over._

Kurt grinned to himself. It wasn't every day that the guy you had complete and utter crush on wanted to text you so much that he put you before his classes. Or at least, it wasn't every day that it happened to him. Come to think of it, most guys he knew would take any distraction from their school work. Blaine was at Dalton and surely they were stricter about phones in class than at McKinley.

**Kurt H. **_I won't even ask._

**Blaine A. **_Nick and Jeff are in this class too, they can fill me in later._

**Kurt H. **_Do they do ANYTHING without being together?_

**Blaine A. **_Not really. They're kind of a package deal._

Kurt had noticed that they seemed permanently joined at the hip. Apparently it was a wide spread thing and wasn't confined to the roleplay.

**Kurt H. **_Are they like, a thing? _

He wasn't sure if that was something he was really meant to ask. Luke had given him numbers on the gay characters versus the gay players, and he couldn't work out exactly where the overlap was.

**Blaine A. **_In an officially official way, no. But they're really close and neither of them likes to talk about sexualities._

**Kurt H. **_And you predict...?_

**Blaine A. **_They're going to date in the future, but the time's not right yet. _

**Blaine A. **_Ooh, class is over! Home time :D_

**Kurt H. **_So I can stop worrying about distracting you?_

**Blaine A. **_You have no faith in my attention span._

**Kurt H. **_Because you're like a puppy personified. You know, judging from all the times you've actually stuck around long enough to hang out._

**Blaine A. **_My parents keep me on a short leash._

**Kurt H. **_Ah, I see._

**Blaine A. **_I messed up, that wasn't an intentional puppy pun._

**Blaine A. **_Unless you like puns._

**Blaine A. **_I know you're on bed rest, but are you up to visitors?_

**Kurt H. **_Not that I've told anyone._

**Blaine A. **_I'm on my way to Lima now, so it was just a thought._

Blaine wanted to visit him. He was never going to stop that boy from seeing him, not now and not ever.

**Blaine A. **_Also, sorry if I take a long time to respond, Ethan's a chatterer and he has sing-alongable music tastes._

**Kurt H. **_Oh? What business do you have in Lima?_

**Kurt H. **_And it's fine, my short term memory's still not great and I have to keep rereading your texts to remember where I was going with this._

**Blaine A. **_Ethan always drives me over on Tuesdays after school. He's there for Leo while I'm there for Hadley._

_Oh. _He drove all the way over to Lima to see Hadley weekly outside of the roleplay. Maybe they really were a couple. With everything that had been going on with Nightbird and Darcy, Kurt had let himself hope that Blaine was gay, since Nightbird was so openly out and proud about it. It wasn't an assumption he should have made, especially with what Luke had told him. He decided to change the topic.

**Kurt H. **_Leo and Ethan are cute together._

**Blaine A. **_Yeah, we like to call them Lethan. They have been together for so long now that they may as well be one person._

**Kurt H. **_They're as joined at the hip as Nick and Jeff._

**Blaine A. **_Niff :3_

**Kurt H. **_Do you do this with every couple you encounter? Also, who is "we"?_

**Blaine A. **_...Maybe? I like portmanteaus. I've never had one for Luke and Erica. Hadley and I, mostly, but she calls them "ship names"._

There he was with the Hadley talk again.

**Kurt H. **_I like Ericuke. Except Lerica probably flows nicer. _

**Kurt H. **_Wait no, Lurica. _

**Blaine A. **_Lurica it is. They're a bit better at being their own people._

**Kurt H. **_What about Nightbird and Darcy?_

**Blaine A. **_Hmmm... Darcebird._

**Kurt H. **_Nightarcy?_

**Blaine A. **_Okay, I like that one better. No fair, you're too good._

**Kurt H. **_I'm sorry, it's a talent I didn't know I had._

**Blaine A. **_Aww, embrace it! _

**Blaine A. **_Kurt, I need to go now, Hadley needs my full attention, more than school._

**Kurt H. **_It's fine, I might take a nap or something._

**Blaine A. **_Kurt, are you okay?_

**Kurt H. **_Totally._

**Blaine A. **_Now answer it honestly._

**Kurt H. **_I'm not so great._

**Blaine A. **_I really need to go now, but call me in about twenty minutes to talk about that, okay?_

**Kurt H. **_Thank you._

Exactly twenty-one minutes later, Kurt called Blaine, feeling like he could actually survive a conversation about the stairs encounter. He hadn't managed to tell his dad that he was pushed yet, or even that Karofsky had threatened him the way he had the week before. Burt knew about the bullying, but he didn't know that it had ever gotten quite as bad as it had.

The phone rang, and rang, and rang.

Finally, after dialling for a second time, the phone was answered. _"Hello?" _spoke a voice, far more feminine and high pitched than Blaine's smooth voice.

"Um, hi? Is Blaine there?" Kurt asked. It was a reasonable question, considering that it was Blaine's phone that he had called.

"_He went to the bathroom. Can I help you?" _

"...Who am I talking to?"

"_This is Hadley," _the voice , of course it was. They were close enough to answer each other's phones.

"Can you tell Blaine that Kurt called when he get back? I mean, he asked me to call him now..."

"_Why would you call him?" _she snapped. Kurt had always thought that Hadley was such a sweet young girl, but this side to her was entirely different and he didn't know what to think. She was incredibly defensive.

"He asked me to, like I said. We were going to talk about some stuff," Kurt said, trying to give her reason enough to stop without saying _I'm concussed because I was pushed down some stairs by a closeted jock yesterday_, which he hadn't really told anyone and he was sure that she wouldn't understand it.

"_Stuff? The kind of stuff you can't tell me about, huh?" _

"Yeah, it's quite personal and doesn't really concern you."

"_But he's my boyfriend!" _And there it was. Every suspicion that Kurt had was seemingly confirmed in one sentence. _"Hadley, is that my phone?" _Kurt heard Blaine say in the background before the line went dead. Kurt felt like crying.

Blaine called back less than five minutes later. Kurt waited a couple of rings before answering, so that he didn't seem too eager. _"Kurt?" _Blaine said with his voice full of concern. It made Kurt feel calm almost immediately.

"Yeah, hi," he said, "I didn't mean to interrupt anything with Hadley..."

"_She told you we were dating." _Blaine sighed.

"She did."

"_We _aren't _dating." _Kurt wasn't sure how to respond. _"Hey Kurt, I'm done here now, are you up for a visitor?"_

"Um, yeah, sure. You'll have to let yourself in though; I can't really get downstairs by myself. I don't think that Finn's here yet otherwise I would ask him to do it."

"_Okay, I can manage that. I'll just call Ethan to say I'm at yours instead of Hadley's, and then I'll be right over."_ They said their momentary goodbyes and Kurt put his phone down and started counting items in his room again.

True to his word, about fifteen minutes later there was a knock on the front door followed by the soft click of it opening. "Kurt?" Blaine called out.

"Upstairs, first door on the left," Kurt called back, and then waited as he heard the sound of Blaine's footsteps on the stairs. He knocked softly on Kurt's bedroom door too before he stepped inside. "Hey," Kurt said, suddenly remembering that he hadn't done his hair all day. Why couldn't that have been what he did while Blaine was on his way over?

"Hey, Kurt. We have a lot to talk about now, don't we?" Blaine said with an uneasy laugh, pulling Kurt's desk chair up to the side of the bed. Kurt sat up against the headboard a little more.

"Where do we start?"

Blaine took a deep breath. "What happened at school yesterday, Kurt?"

"If you want yesterday to make sense we need to back up a bit."

"I've got time."

It was Kurt's turn to inhale. "I have been bullied well, my entire high school experience, even before I came out. The jocks were so damn sure that I was gay that they would yell at me from across the hallways. I got tossed into dumpsters by guys who are now my friends, took slushies before everyone else did."

"Slushies?" Blaine asked.

"It's a thing at my school, where you get an ice cold drink with too much food colouring thrown in your face- not nice. I swear they are kept a lot colder at McKinley than anywhere else. I've been keeping a spare change of clothes in my locker for a long time."

Blaine nodded, not as though he understood but to show that he was listening and trying to get it. "And who is everyone else?"

"I'm getting there- they're the Glee club. We ended up right at the bottom of the food chain. Glee club geek and the only out kid in the whole school? Shark bait. But it's not just the jocks, you see, because I somehow was landed with my own personal tormentor. This jock- Karofsky- he slams me into lockers almost daily, yells homophobic slurs whenever he passes me. Yesterday he pushed me down some stairs, thus the concussion."

"Wow."

"Yeah. One of the footballers in Glee found me passed out and he and Finn carried me to the nurse's office."

"Who is Finn, anyway? Is he your... boyfriend?" Blaine asked, almost timidly. Kurt laughed.

"Oh god, no. He's my step-brother. I did have a huge crush on him, but it passed when our parents started getting closer."

"So do you have a boyfriend, then? Someone who would get all jealous about you roleplaying one half of Nightarcy?"

Kurt shook his head. "I've never really dated anyone."

"Yeah, me neither. _Especially _not Hadley. I had a talk to her about that."

"Did she really think you were dating?" Kurt asked.

"I don't think so. She can just be a bit dramatic and got caught up in the moment, I'd say." Blaine shrugged.

"So if you aren't dating, why do you come all the way to Lima to hang out with her?"

"I'm paid to," Blaine said. Kurt looked at him in confusion. "I _tutor _her. She has dyscalculia and needs a bit of a push in the right direction, so I help her out with her math once a week. That's all."

"I did think that she was a bit young for you," Kurt said. Blaine laughed.

"And _female._ I thought you knew that I was gay, Kurt."

"You just... seem really straight? Like, too good to be true."

Blaine raised an eyebrow at Kurt. "And Nightbird wanting to be the first openly gay superhero didn't tip you off?"

"Luke told me that including me there are four gay roleplayers and four gay characters but that the overlap wasn't perfect." He could feel himself blushing a bit, but he tried not to talk himself down with his reasoning. Surely Blaine would understand where he was coming from.

"Ah, that's because we have Leo and Ethan as players, but only Hawkbeak and not Carlton as characters. The last is character is Nick's, Drew slash Dovetail. But as I was saying earlier, there's an undisclosed sexuality there."

"Oh, okay." A moment of silence hung between them, but it wasn't uncomfortable.

"Do you want to talk some more about the bullying? Have you told the school?" Blaine asked.

"We told them a while ago and they didn't do anything. Things with Karofsky have gotten worse recently, though. They might listen again."

"Have you told your parents yet? That you were pushed?" Kurt shook his head.

"I don't know how much worse it would get if I told people."

Blaine sighed and made sure to look intently at Kurt. "You can't just keep it quiet, Kurt, otherwise you won't ever get justice. That's what I did. I ran."

"You were bullied?"

Blaine took a deep breath again. "It was the Sadie Hawkins dance at my school- my first school, not Dalton- back in my freshman year."

"Aren't you a sophomore?"

"Right, my _first _freshman year, I should have clarified. Anyway, there was this dance at my school, and I had just come out and it had all gone fine. I asked my friend, who was the only other gay kid I knew. Sometimes I think that given a bit more time we could have been something more, but we never quite made it that far. It was after the dance, and we were waiting outside the school for his dad to come and pick us up. Out of nowhere these three huge guys, must have been seniors, they just... attacked us. I was tiny back then, hadn't quite made a growth spurt yet, and I was on the ground in moments. But they just kept kicking me, and I was crying, and..." Blaine paused, and Kurt reached out to take his hand, pat his shoulder, anything. Blaine shook his head, as though he were coming back to reality. "I don't remember what happened next, but I was in hospital for a long time- so long that when I transferred to Dalton the dean suggested that I would benefit from repeating the year, and that's what I did. Dalton is my safe space, and I guess I get used to conforming there, but I needed that. I still do, a lot."

"Thank you, Blaine," Kurt whispered.

"Can I hug you, Kurt?" Blaine asked. Kurt nodded, and Blaine sat down next to Kurt on the bed and wrapped his arms around him, and Kurt did his best to reciprocate. For someone who had been almost a stranger just a few hours earlier, Kurt felt incredibly comfortable with Blaine, and their conversation had helped him so much.

* * *

_A/N: it would really make my day if you could take a moment to review :D This was kind of an important chapter for a couple of a reasons (sorry if you think there's a bit of LARP lack, the next chapter is important for that side of things ;) )._


	6. Regaining Balance

Burt could see that Kurt was getting stir crazy on Wednesday (as Kurt hadn't hesitated to tell him) and, though he made him stay home from school and skip Glee, he made Kurt a deal. So long as he could stay on his feet for long enough, he was allowed to go to the LARP session in the park.

Kurt was sure to take it slowly as he got dressed and did his hair, and then ventured downstairs to watch TV. He pretended that he was remembering every single detail of the show that he was watching, though maybe his concentration was still not so great. His balance was much better and Kurt was celebrating the little victories. He felt a lot better than he had, and his recovery in the last few days alone had been phenomenal.

Burt came home in time to drop Kurt at the park, not trusting him to drive in the slightest, and seeing that he was up and dressed and seemed fine Burt stuck to his side of the deal. Kurt was fairly quiet when they first got into the car, and stayed that way until he couldn't avoid the conversation with small hums of agreement.

"There's a boy who goes to these sessions, isn't there?" Burt asked, "Not just a boy, but a _boy_, right? As in one you have a crush on, or whatever."

Kurt took a deep breath. "Yeah, there is."

"Do you want to talk about it?" Burt offered.

"Thanks, dad, but you don't have to do that. I know all the gay stuff makes you uncomfortable." In all honesty Kurt was as uncomfortable talking about it with his dad as he perceived Burt was, and he didn't feel any need to bring up the subject himself.

"Hey, none of that. You are you, and I love you, and I certainly am not uncomfortable. Do I want to know all of the details? Not really. But you can tell me about boys, you know, no different to if you were telling me about some cute chick or whatever."

"Is this because you want to meet Luke and Erica? You don't believe that there are responsible adults that I hang out with regularly?"

"Kurt, don't change the subject. What's his name?" Kurt sighed.

"He's called Blaine."

"Is Blaine on the table?" Kurt gave Burt a puzzled look as they pulled into a parking space by the park. "I mean, is he gay too? Does he like you back?"

"He's gay, yeah, and sometimes it seems like he could like me, but... I don't know, dad," Kurt said as he slid on Darcy's leather jacket. "Thanks for driving me."

"It's no problem, kiddo, there's no way I would let you get behind the wheel concussed and all. You can barely steer yourself, let alone a hunk of metal."

"Hey, don't talk about my Navigator that way." Burt chuckled appreciatively.

"If someone can give you a ride home that would be good, but you can call me and I'll come and get you, alright bud?"

"Yeah, I know." Kurt opened the door and stepped out of the car. Burt waved at him and waited until Kurt had greeted the group to drive away. He had arrived later than he normally would when he was coming from Glee, but that didn't seem to be a problem and there were more people there to be sociable with while he waited for more group members to arrive. They all seemed to have missed him and Darcy's absence was apparently notable, though Kurt would have thought otherwise.

As the session began, Kurt found his hand in Blaine's as almost second nature. He certainly didn't question who had taken whose hand or why it had happened, he just found himself effortlessly caught in the relationship between Darcy and Nightbird. "I hope you're not mad about me having to deal with Jet the other day," Blaine said. Kurt gave his hand a little squeeze.

"Not at all. I was a little upset, but it was mostly just confusion. This is making it up to me, so you don't have to feel bad."

"When I asked you to leave, I was just protecting you, you know. She's an elite villain, and I'm not ever going to let her hurt you."

"Yeah, I know," Kurt said. He paused for a moment before he asked, "Nightbird? Are we official?"

"What do you mean?" Blaine said.

"Can I tell people that you're my boyfriend yet? And not just 'the guy I'm seeing'?"

"Oh. I don't see why not. This _is _the date that I'm supposed to fly you home on, and I don't just do that for anyone. But boyfriends would qualify. You aren't going to make me meet your parents now, right?" Kurt laughed.

"No, no," he said, shaking his head a bit, "don't you think it's a little bit funny how I only know you as a superhero? That's not usually how these stories work. Is there some normal person who is you in disguise who I've been rude to or anything?" Blaine grinned at him.

"Nope, just me as Nightbird. I mean, there was once a normal person there, but he's been gone for so long that I don't even think we're really the same person."

"I don't think I can really imagine you without the spandex, honestly."

"It does show off all my best features, doesn't it?" Blaine teased.

"Yeah, it really helps emphasise what a good person you are, or how much I like you, or how nice your voice is," Kurt said sarcastically. Blaine laughed.

"Those are traits rather than features, don't you think?" He paused for a moment before he added, "How much you like me isn't really a trait of mine."

"I beg to differ. It says a lot." They walked around for a bit before they walked past Jeff sitting on the ground with a bitter look on his face. "Braxton?" Kurt asked, "Are you okay?"

"Oh hey, Darcy. I'll be fine, I'm just sort of lonely," Jeff said. Kurt shot a look that was purely Darcy to Blaine, one of concern for the boy in front of them. Blaine, in total Nightbird, sighed, but sat down. Kurt was glad to see that they knew exactly what was happening with just communicative looks.

_We need to help him, sorry to ruin the date. _

_No, Darcy, it's fine, there will be more dates._

"What's up?" Kurt asked, "and this is my uh, boyfriend," both of them smiled at the new usage of the word, "Nightbird."

"You know my friend, Drew?" Kurt nodded, "he got a boyfriend." Blaine smiled smugly, pure Nightbird radiating through him, that the characters were coming out, finally. It made Nightbird look like his dream of helping gay kids realise they're okay was working.

"And this upsets you because...?"

"Now I have no one to muck about with! Screw this, I'm going to go spray paint a wall or something." Jeff stood up and effectively ran away, leaving Kurt and Blaine sitting on the ground together.

"You look pleased with yourself," Kurt commented.

"I am pleased. Because I know Drew when he's busy being Dovetail- I didn't just tell you that- and now he has a boyfriend and no one cares, which I mean in the best way possible. I feel like I'm really doing something. I'm making a difference, and you have a hand in that, you know."

"Yeah, I know. It's like they can finally believe that you're gay because you have a boyfriend."

"As much as I hate to admit it, I think you're exactly right." Blaine stood up and offered Kurt a hand. When they were both on their feet they started walking again, swinging their joined hands between them. It was what Kurt enjoyed most about the roleplaying, how effortlessly the pair could pretend to be in a relationship with one another. Some days it Kurt a lot of hope that they could slide into a relationship of their own as easily, though he still felt like he knew next to nothing about Blaine himself.

It didn't take long before Kurt was tackled to the ground from the side, taking Blaine down with him. When he tried to let go of Blaine's hand, he was still holding on so tightly that it wasn't possible. He looked up to find Erica on top of them both. The next few moments went by extremely quickly, but Kurt stumbled along behind Erica, clearly Darcy being kidnapped as promised, while Blaine called after them, immobilised by Marley sitting on top of his legs.

"Oh, Darcy," Erica said, "If only you had a hero now." She pushed him to the ground in a way that looked rough but didn't hurt Kurt in the slightest. He sat obediently and waited. "What, you don't want to defend yourself or your precious Nightbird?" she taunted.

"Arguing isn't going to get me anywhere. May as well save my energy," Kurt said, sighing emphatically. Erica sat down beside him, looking at him attentively.

"I was going to go and claim some victims, but you are absolutely _enthralling_."

"I thought I was just being hero bait for you."

"Not until I'm done cracking you, Mister Peterson. I just don't get it. I don't understand you, or why you want to do anything here in Dreamweaver. It sounds like you had bigger things on the horizon for you, before you moved back in with your parents, huh?"

"It's only temporary! My apartment lease is about to come through."

"I see. Well, I'll be back to finish this chat later." She got to her feet and sashayed off, leaving Kurt to sit by himself until Marley came by and pushed Leo to the ground beside him.

"I thought JetCat worked alone," Kurt said to Marley.

"Everyone needs to call in backup sometimes. Darcy, meet Hawkbeak. You should have plenty of time to get acquainted." She ran away again, leaving Kurt and Leo. Kurt shifted about on the grass uncomfortably.

Leo sighed. "I was on a date when they pounced on me."

"Me too," Kurt said, "my boyfriend was meant to fly me home on this date and everything."

"I'm not sure that my boyfriend is quite my boyfriend yet. It's just a new thing. Damn, I'm meant to be a hero myself, and yet they can contain me so easily. I'm meant to be helping to establish the villain institute, not being trapped like this myself."

Kurt took a moment to put two and two together. "You don't happen to be dating a kid called Drew, are you?"

"Uh, yeah, I am. You know him?" Leo seemed suitably surprised at the connection.

Kurt shook his head. "Not well. I know his friend, Braxton."

"Oh," Leo said, "I know him. He doesn't seem thrilled that we're dating."

"He's worried about getting lonely or something. And he's really acting out without Drew to keep him in line."

"Oh, really? That's not good."

"He told us he was going to go spray paint a wall."

"Damn, that's another thing I'll have to clean up," Leo grumbled.

"Just get Drew to let him know that you aren't going to take him entirely away from him. Get Drew to keep spending time with Braxton, too. Let them have some friend time," Kurt advised. He glanced over to find that Erica was sitting on the bench, clearly having tapped it. Kurt and Leo silently approached the bench to tap it, keeping in mind that Darcy and Hawkbeak were still trapped in JetCat's lair.

"I didn't tackle you too hard, right?" Erica asked Kurt, "especially with the having fallen down stairs and all that."

"No, I'm fine. I'll probably go to school tomorrow and everything. We have glee club sectionals coming up and I need to be there to help pick our set list."

"That's good; it's nice to hear that you're recovering."

"Can we please talk about how Hawkbeak and Dovetail are dating?" Ethan said, "Who knew about that before today? You know, aside from those two?"

"Didn't you? Carlton told Darcy that Drew was dating someone," Kurt said. He had seen the relationship between Leo and Ethan and examined the dynamic a lot. They had been together for so long that there didn't seem to be much that they didn't know about one another, so Ethan's question did surprise him. Ethan walked towards Leo and punched him playfully on the arm.

"I didn't know it was _Leo_."

"I meant to tell you! And then we got a little bit... distracted," Leo defended.

"It's okay. I don't mind, babe. It's not like you're cheating on me with Nick, of all people."

"Babe? Since when do you call anyone babe?" Leo teased, looking questioningly at his boyfriend.

"Since now?" Ethan shrugged. They continued to bicker playfully, and Kurt was soon diverting his attention to the other side of their group, where Jeff was still looking upset and Nick was avoiding eye contact with him. Jeff walked across to Blaine, who Kurt hadn't even noticed was standing beside him chatting with Marley, and promptly threw his arms around him. Blaine hugged his friend back, a little bit surprised with the contact but seemingly adjusting to it pretty quickly.

"It's just in character," Kurt heard Blaine saying quietly to Jeff. Nick looked confused, and Kurt walked over to him.

"You know what's going on?" Nick asked, "Jeff doesn't seem happy. I didn't think he would have a problem with my character dating anyone..."

"Maybe he's upset that you didn't tell him?" Kurt suggested.

"But I _did_ tell him."

"Oh," Kurt said, "_Oh_. I have survived enough glee club dramas to know what's going on." Nick looked at him in a way that Kurt knew was urging him to continue. "He's jealous."

"Jealous? Of what? That I thought to ask Leo to plot before he did?"

"You really _are_ that oblivious? He _likes_ you. He likes _you_. This has nothing to do with your characters, okay? Take them out of the equation entirely." Nick didn't even seem to try to hide his surprise. No one really anticipated what happened next, though, as Nick walked across the group to where Jeff was still hanging onto Blaine. Everyone in the group could sense the tension and watched eagerly to see what was going to happen next, as Nick tapped Jeff on the shoulder, clearing his throat. Jeff let go of Blaine to face Nick, and Nick leaned forward and kissed his best friend. Blaine took a step back away from the pair, both looking shocked, and headed around to Kurt.

"What did you say to him to get him to do that?" Blaine asked. Kurt shrugged. He hadn't said anything he didn't think Nick knew deep down already.

"I told him that Jeff liked him. It wasn't hard."

"I'm impressed. I told you they've been dancing around the subject for a long time. They have a very serious talk ahead of them."

"Yeah, but I think they just changed the couple to singles ratio in the group anyway."

"I called it," Blaine said proudly.

"That you did."

"Are you going to get back to school tomorrow? How's all the concussion and stuff going?" Blaine asked with a voice that suggested genuine concern to Kurt. He didn't even mind the sudden topic jump.

"I want to go back to school, there's glee stuff going on that I don't think I can miss much more of. I have zero chance of getting a solo if I'm not there to fight for it."

"I would offer to come into Lima and catch up with you tomorrow, but Thursdays are busy for me. I have to make room for LARPing sometime, right? So to do that, I have two music lessons _and _a counselling appointment-" Blaine paused, as though he had realised what he had just said. He shook his head before continuing, offering Kurt a sheepish smile, which he took as a plea not to ask questions. "Do you need a ride home?"

"Yeah, I do, actually. Dad won't let me drive with the concussion and all."

"How's the concentration going?" Blaine asked with a smirk.

"Better, but that's why I'm not allowed to drive."

"That's what I thought. Come on, I'll take you." The car ride back to Kurt's house was spent chatting pleasantly, and they arrived to see that Burt was waiting in the driveway for Kurt to get home.

"He's going to want to meet you," Kurt grumbled. Blaine laughed lightly.

"I can meet parents. I'm a charming Dalton school boy."

"Who is currently dressed in a spandex superhero suit," Kurt reminded, "thank you for the ride, Blaine. Will you be at the social on Friday?"

"Yeah, I'll try to get there. See you then?" Kurt nodded, and stepped out of the car. Burt, as expected, raced around to the driver's side of the car and tapped on the window. Kurt couldn't even watch as he remembered what he had said to his dad earlier, and waved to Blaine before dashing inside the house, unable to bear the thought of what they were saying in his absence.

* * *

After dinner, Carole knocked on Kurt's slightly ajar bedroom door and poked her head into his room. "Do you have time to talk?" she asked. Kurt nodded, so she let herself in, returning the door to its initial position before she sat down on the bed beside Kurt.

"We need to have a boy talk," she said, "your dad told me that there's a boy from your group that you're interested in."

"Oh my god, can we not do this?" Kurt asked, putting his face into his hands for a moment, "did dad send you to grill me for information? What do you want to know?"

"Kurt, I don't need to gossip with you, but he told me that he hasn't ever talked to you about sex."

"Oh my god, can we not do this?" he repeated, his voice raising an octave.

"Look, I'm not accusing you of anything, but there are some things that you need to hear, and your dad isn't any more comfortable talking about it than you," Carole said firmly.

"I don't want to talk about... that."

"You've done sex ed classes at school, right?"

Kurt scoffed. "Bearing in mind that we live in Ohio? Hardly."

"Exactly why it needs to be said, Kurt."

"I'd prefer boy gossip to this, Carole."

Carole sighed slightly. "Can you at least promise me that you'll do a little bit of research yourself, if you don't want to hear it from me?" she asked, "and I know you aren't even dating anyone yet, but I just want you to know that the offer stands- if you're too embarrassed to buy protection for yourself, I'll do it for you."

"Oh my god, can we not do this?" Kurt said again. This time Carole just laughed at walked back towards Kurt's door.

"Any time, Kurt," she said, before finally leaving his bedroom. Kurt buried his face in his pillow, and wondered what it was that made his parents need to talk about boys with him so suddenly.

* * *

_A/N: You are all wonderful people :3 as always, feel free to drop by and say hi at my tumblr, klainebowsandtimelords. _


	7. Introductions To Be Made

**Kurt H. **_HELP ME. I'm at glee rehearsal and they're arguing about song choices and it's so boring that I don't even care anymore._

**Blaine A. **_I thought that was why you wanted to be at school today._

**Blaine A. **_Your dad would have let you stay home some more._

**Kurt H. **_It WAS. But not anymore. This is the worst._

"What do you think, Kurt?" Mister Schuester asked, snapping Kurt out of his daydream. He looked up from his phone.

"Hm? Oh, it's fine." Everyone glared at him in shock, because Kurt was not usually one to sit passively throughout these conversations. There needed to be someone who would debate against Rachel's suggestions to stop it from being a dictatorship and he was willing to argue with her about them.

"Are you okay?" Mercedes asked him once general conversation had diverted away from Kurt again, "who are you texting, anyway?" A whole week had gone by since Darcy had been kidnapped by JetCat, since Jeff and Nick had kissed, since Burt had met Blaine.

"I'm fine, honestly."

"And the second part of that question?" If Kurt was going to introduce the concept of the LARP to his best friend now seemed like as good a time as any, and answering with the full truth as to who he was texting would mean answering follow up questions about where he had met anyone _worth_ texting outside of glee.

"His name is Blaine," Kurt said quietly, near mumbling to try and avoid more attention being drawn to them. Mercedes face lit up.

"You're texting a boy? A friend boy? A _boyfriend_?"

"A friend, yes. From my roleplaying group?" Mercedes wrinkled up her nose.

"The Monday-Wednesday-Friday thing?"

"Yeah, that's it."

"You like him," Mercedes said confidently.

"I like him," Kurt admitted. He looked down at his phone again to see another message had come in.

**Blaine A. **_Doesn't Marley do glee club with you?_

**Kurt H. **_Nope, she's terrified of Rachel. _

**Blaine A. **_Ah, I see. _

**Blaine A. **_Rachel Berry, Rachel?_

**Kurt H. **_That's the one. You know her?_

**Blaine A. **_I've seen her at some auditions and stuff._

**Blaine A. **_Marley really is a lot like Glam, huh?_

**Blaine A. **_You know, with how scared she is of anyone vaguely more authoritative than her._

**Kurt H. **_Rachel does not deserve to be likened to the fabulousness that is JetCat._

**Blaine A. **_Ah. I see how it is. _

"Kurt, can you put your phone down for two minutes and pay attention?" Rachel snapped. He suppressed a laugh at her timing. Kurt held up his hands in defencelessness before he picked the phone back up as Rachel carried on her next tangent, her attention sufficiently diverted from whether or not he was using his phone.

"I _have _told you like, three times now to stop texting your boyfriend," Mercedes said, far gentler than Rachel.

**Kurt H. **_Mercedes keeps telling me to stop texting my boyfriend and pay attention._

**Blaine A. **_I thought you didn't have a boyfriend? ;) _

Kurt tried not to let the wink emoticon get the better of him, especially when he had suggested to the others that he would put his phone away soon. Was it wrong of him to think of it as being flirty?

**Kurt H. **_She means you, you know._

**Blaine A. **_I know, I was just teasing you. I'm only your boyfriend for two and a half hours or so at the most per week._

**Kurt H. **_That's true. That includes today :D_

**Blaine A. **_Yes! Except no Nightarcy date, since Darcy is still trapped in Jet's lair. :(_

Kurt thought that maybe he should interpret the emotion behind it better than seeing it as disappointment that they weren't roleplaying a date. Perhaps in good time they would be able to go on dates without the characters to hide behind. It already felt so natural to hold his hand or hug him, and he felt himself drifting to fantasies of other kinds of physical affection. I wasn't that he didn't love their playful, flirty banter, but he couldn't help thinking about Blaine's lips. A lot.

**Kurt H. **_When WILL Nightbird come to save him?_

**Blaine A. **_All will be revealed in time._

**Kurt H. **_You might get an angsty Darcy. _

"Kurt, if you don't concentrate I'm going to confiscate your phone," Rachel threatened. Kurt looked up to find her standing right up close to him, looming over him. He didn't think it was possible for such a short girl to loom. She held out her hand expectantly, and Kurt slid his phone into his pocket. Rachel sighed but accepted the answer, returning to the whiteboard which had a list of song choices drafted up on it. "Okay, so to recap, Sam and Quinn will open with _The Time of My Life_, then our best shot is an upbeat group number, for which we have these ideas-" Rachel circled a group of bullet points, "and then I'll sing a solo to close, which I will personally hand pick."

"Wait, _this _is what I was missing?" Kurt exclaimed. They still had time to argue, after all.

* * *

By the end of glee they hadn't gotten much farther with their debating of the set list. They were settled on Sam and Quinn's duet (Kurt suspected that Rachel thought they needed enough advance warning to practice it), but they were no closer to deciding which songs their others would be. They had managed to talk Rachel out of a solo all to herself and into a song where they could rotate the solos, as so that she couldn't be the one to pick just for the sake of showcasing her own vocal range, though the exact song was still to be chosen.

With the school near silent as they left, the glee club made their way out to the parking lot to collect their cars. There weren't many cars still there, but that was how it always was. Everyone had usually gone home by the time their practice was over, except a few teachers or other clubs. They themselves only stayed for the sake of their club. "Kurt!" Marley said, walking quickly towards his small group of glee members. Kurt hadn't even noticed her waiting.

"Hey, Marley," Kurt greeted, "do you want to come to the session with me? We can drop by your place to grab your costume, if you want."

"Yeah, that would be great!" Rachel glared at Kurt and Marley.

"Kurt, what are you doing hanging around freshmen nobodies?" Rachel asked. Marley visibly cowered in on herself, trying desperately to avoid confrontation with Rachel. Kurt knew how threatened by her she already felt, and he wasn't going to let her feel any worse in Rachel's presence.

"Excuse me?" Kurt said, stopping walking and causing the group to stop around him. "Rachel, this is Marley, a friend from my Live Action Roleplaying group. Yes, my _friend_. Newsflash, Rachel, you're just a junior nobody. We're all nobodies. Glee club is the epitome of being nobody. Marley has been a better friend to me in the last three weeks than you have been in the last three years." Rachel just blinked at him, surprised at the outburst. Kurt felt oddly proud by how he handled the situation. He wasn't one to keep quiet when he disagreed, but he wasn't used to standing up for himself or anyone else.

Kurt kept walking and Marley and Mercedes followed, but the rest of the group seemed to stay startled and didn't move right away. He heard someone consoling Rachel, though he had no clue why, but Kurt couldn't care less. "Where did that come from, Kurt?" Mercedes asked, "You just sassed Miss Berry. _Hard_." He smiled proudly.

"We're friends?" Marley said finally.

"Of course we're friends, Marley. Why wouldn't we be?" Kurt said. He unlocked his car as they neared it. Marley didn't respond, but Kurt took that to be a positive sign of her acceptance. He wasn't surprised that she was being quieter, even more timid than usual, after a confrontation with Rachel.

"Could I come with you, Kurt?" Mercedes asked almost shyly, though she paled in comparison to Marley's introversion, "I want to meet your other friends. I'm just worried about you, boo, and I need to know what these other friends of yours have that we don't."

Kurt sighed. "Is this about Blaine?" Mercedes shrugged and Marley laughed quietly to herself knowing the full extent of Blaine and Kurt's relationship. Maybe the way he had called Marley his friend, even one of his better friends, had set Mercedes off. He thought that she probably getting defensive about their friendship.

"You know he used to never come to the socials before you started?" Marley said. Mercedes gave Marley a look to ask for further details, but Marley wasn't really used to interpreting Mercedes' gossip facial expressions.

"You can come with us, if you want. Just... try not to ask too many questions?" Kurt continued as he was ignoring the girls, she agreed and they all got into the car, stopping off by Marley's house briefly before heading to the park.

Kurt put on his leather jacket and Marley put her cape on as they walked towards the group, Mercedes in tow looking surprised by how they were adjusted to their routine of finishing off their costumes almost in sync. "Superheroes?" Mercedes asked in clarification, and Kurt nodded. "Which one is your boy?"

"The one in the black bodysuit," Kurt pointed out, "Behave, Jones." The group started to diffuse almost as soon as they got to it, so Kurt introduced Mercedes to Erica and Luke, who stayed sitting on the bench. Hadley scurried off as he approached them, clearly still embarrassed about what had happened with Blaine. Kurt seemed to be the only other person to know about what she had said about Blaine, and he didn't blame her for wanting to keep it that way.

"Shouldn't you be in a holding pen in a lair somewhere?" Erica teased Kurt.

"Shouldn't _you_ be kidnapping everyone else?" Kurt replied, "and shouldn't you be trying to save us?" he said in Luke's direction.

"It's not my fight, yet. White Wings is suspiciously absent, and I can coach Mercedes through the session, if you want?" Kurt looked hopefully at Mercedes, asking permission nonverbally to run off and join in. She rolled her eyes.

"Go on, Kurt." He was quick to leave and join the others who had been kidnapped sitting on the grass not too far away. He watched as Mercedes replaced Erica on the bench, and Luke began to point things out to her, chatting amiably. He figured they would be having a similar conversation to the one he had had with Erica the first week he had stumbled across them.

Kurt looked around the cluster. This had been the first time since Kurt had been part of the roleplay that everyone had been put together so closely and he could really examine the dynamics of the characters and the conversations that they had. Darcy and Hawkbeak were the first two to have been kidnapped by JetCat and Glameow, but in the last few sessions they had been joined by Unique, Yvonne, Braxton, Drew, and Constable Carlton. It was only as Erica settled herself down in front of Kurt that he realised how much time he had passed observing the group. She rested her chin on her hands with her arms propped on her knees, ignoring Hadley's whining, Nick and Leo's harmless in character flirting, Jeff's glaring in their direction and Unique's boredom at the whole set up.

"I need to crack your mystery, Darcy," Erica said, "what makes you so special that the Nightbird can't resist you?"

"Maybe you should ask him that," Kurt replied with a sigh, "you know, when he turns up to save us, finally."

"You're more than hero bait to me, my dearest Darcy. I can't just _let _him turn up until you've finished working with me. Tell me the whole story. How did you end up in Dreamweaver?" Kurt felt like he had repeated Darcy's back story hundreds of times since he had been there.

"I finished studying overseas; this is where my family is. Also, the newspaper in town is in desperate need of a new editor, and I can do that once I work my way up the ranks, which I'm sure will happen since I have so much insider knowledge about the heroic and villainous happenings in the town. What makes me so important to you? What have I got that makes me so much more special than any of these others?"

"Besides your insider knowledge, as you say? That's what I'm trying to figure out, sweetie. Whatever you have is what he has. There is some advantage he has from picking you up, and I just can't work out what that is."

"I'm not a tactic," Kurt said defensively.

"Of course not. I guess we'll just have to ask him after all, huh?" Erica smiled wickedly and turned around. "Glameow? Bring him in." Marley led Blaine into the middle of the group, his hands held firmly behind his back as he struggled against her grip. He looked at Kurt with the most dejected facial expression Kurt had ever seen on him.

"Darcy..." Blaine breathed out. Kurt stood up and tried to approach him, but Erica was quick to grab him before they were in touching distance of one another. Kurt tried to reach for Blaine, thinking about how long Darcy and Nightbird had been separated, all the missing and longing and new love, but was quickly grabbed again by Erica.

"Glameow, why don't we leave these boys to their reunion? Let him go," Erica said, releasing Kurt herself, "do have fun with our new friends too, Glam." She took off, running towards the bench, leaving the new arrivals with the group. Marley realised what had just happened to her character and sat down, leaving Kurt and Blaine to it. Blaine closed the gap, wrapping his arms around Kurt. For a moment he felt relieved, and realised that was all Darcy, then came the familiar fluttery feeling that _Kurt_ was hugging _Blaine._

"I'm so glad you're okay," Blaine said, "you are okay, right? She didn't hurt you?" Kurt shook his head.

"No, I'm good. Better now that you're here, boyfriend." He let the word hang for a moment, and he watched as Blaine smiled fondly at the memory of Nightbird and Darcy's last date before the kidnapping and they had discussed the terminology.

"Even though I can't save you?" Blaine said, biting his lip as he waited for Kurt's response.

"I don't always need saving."

"Saving's kind of my thing, though." Kurt shook his head.

"Not today, it isn't. Come and sit with me. Tell me about what's going on with you." They sat down on the grass and Blaine wrapped one of his arms around Kurt, who let his head rest on Blaine's shoulder. The simple closeness made Kurt feel simultaneously relaxed and on edge, calm and excited, comfortable and fidgety. He wondered for a moment how the others perceived their relationship. The kind of contact they had on days like today was beyond friendship, but maybe that was only their characters. Kurt didn't think he was that convincing of an actor.

"Mostly I've been planning how to save this group, but clearly it didn't work," Blaine explained, "I'd like to say that you weren't my biggest priority because I care about everyone, but you're especially important to me."

"If it had been any of the other Defenders who had come in here I wouldn't have been as happy to see them."

"None of the others have my good looks and wit." Kurt looked around the group to find that most of them had started to fade away from the crowd and were clustered by the bench. He didn't want to leave the comfort of sitting so close to Blaine, but they needed to rejoin the others. They seemed to realise that everyone was looking at them at about the same time and both stood up, making their way over to the gathering.

Mercedes was quick to reattach herself to Kurt's side, looping her arm through his. Erica ran through a couple of quick notices, and soon everyone was preparing to leave. "Can you introduce me to him?" Mercedes asked Kurt quietly. He sighed lightly but nodded, leading her across the group to Blaine. He knew she would have a lot of questions, since the two had been effectively cuddling for so long.

"Hey, Kurt," Blaine said smiling brightly at the pair, "I can't stay, I have a piano lesson to go to."

"Oh, that's okay," Kurt replied, "good work today."

"You too. Darcy really gets all the emotions, huh?"

"Only since a certain nocturnal avenger has swooped in." Blaine laughed and checked his phone.

"I really need to go now, I'm so sorry." Kurt said goodbye and then Blaine was gone, before he had even mentioned Mercedes. She looked at him questioningly as Erica joined them.

"Did you meet Blaine?" Erica asked Mercedes. She shook his head.

"Kurt didn't introduce me."

"Goddamn, Kurt," Erica punched his shoulder without enough force to do any damage, "it would have taken you two seconds to stop flirting with him." She turned back to Mercedes as Kurt rubbed his arm absentmindedly. "Do you understand what's happening around here?"

"I think I understood, but it's not really my thing," Mercedes concluded, "I'm not much of an actress."

"That's alright," Erica said, "you're welcome to keep watching if you want."

"Thanks, but I think I'll pass." Kurt was internally very grateful for Mercedes' decision and tried not to let it show. It wasn't that he didn't love Mercedes; he just wanted to keep his LARP and Glee lives separate. He got along with the two groups in different ways for very different reasons, and though he didn't doubt that the others would like his LARP friends too, he wanted to keep them as his friends.

Kurt dropped Mercedes off on his way home. He was stopped on his way into the house by his phone chiming in his pocket. He smiled when he saw the sender of the message.

**Blaine A. **_Sorry for running off today. I don't think I could be totally charming for meeting your friend right now. I do want to meet your glee club friends though :) _

**Kurt H. **_It's okay, she was just dying to meet you after all the texts earlier today._

**Blaine A. **_So I'm famous among your friends? B)_

**Kurt H. **_I talk about you just a little bit._

After sending the message Kurt wasn't sure how it was going to be taken by Blaine. He could think it was cute or funny or creepy, and Kurt just hoped that at worst he would take it as flirty.

**Blaine A. **_B)_

That wasn't quite the reaction that Kurt expected.

**Kurt H. **_Having fun there? _

**Blaine A. **_B)_

**Kurt H. **_:)_

**Blaine A. **_My smiley is infinitely cooler than yours._

**Kurt H. **_Makes up for all the other ways I'm cooler than you._

**Blaine A. **_You are much cooler than me, that's true._

**Kurt H. **_Thanks._

**Blaine A. **_B)_

**Kurt H. **_Really?_

**Blaine A. **_Don't pretend you don't love it B)_

Kurt sighed. There was something ridiculously endearing about their exchange, and it gave him feelings that he couldn't really describe. Every word that Blaine said had Kurt falling a tiny bit further, and even the smiley faces didn't help. He was pretty sure that Blaine was aware of his crush on him, and all Kurt could do was hope that the feeling was at least partially mutual. If only Blaine were a little easier to read.


	8. Seriously Competitive

Two weeks later the set list for Sectionals had been juggled several times and the choreography had been altered dramatically, but they were finally sitting in an auditorium as they waited for the competition to begin. They were third in the order, which meant they had time to get comfortable in their seats. Kurt calmed his nerves and found he was getting more and more excited for the competition, for the rush that always came with performing for him. The auditorium wasn't huge, but any audience was a big enough one for Kurt.

"Run me through our competition again?" Kurt asked Rachel, leaning forward to talk to her in the row in front of him.

"The Hipsters are a group of elderly people working for their GEDs, so they hardly count. The Warblers are a bit trickier, they're that preppy school in Westerville's a cappella choir," Rachel said.

"Dalton?"

"Yeah, why?" Kurt shrugged.

"I know some guys who go there." From the roleplay he knew four guys who attended Dalton- Blaine, Jeff, Nick and Ethan. He hadn't ever talked about glee clubs with any of them- at least not _their_ glee clubs. He wondered if they would be around for him to say hi to later, if they had come to support the team or whatever. They could have had Warbler friends.

The Hipsters performed first, and Kurt thought that their whole concept was adorable. He wasn't worried about being beaten by them, but he enjoyed their performance.

The Dalton Academy Warblers performed next, and Kurt gripped the arms of his chair as their set started and none other than Blaine Anderson, the boy that he had the biggest crush on, was their lead soloist. If Blaine hadn't been perfect enough already, now he could sing too. He had a demanding stage presence, and Kurt was absolutely captivated by their performance of _Hey Soul Sister_. He should have known that with all the music lessons Blaine took he would be soloist material.

At the end of the pop song, the pace changed dramatically as they began their next. This song was much slower and seemed to be a lot deeper than the last, even before Blaine began to sing. His eyes locked on Kurt's, and that was when Kurt knew that this was going to have some direct impact on him. Of course Blaine had done the research when Kurt mentioned his glee club, and yet Kurt hadn't ever even asked about whether or not he was in one himself. Blaine barely broke eye contact for a second throughout the song, always coming back to Kurt.

"_Your heart is broken, to your surprise, you're sick of crying for blue eyes,"_ Blaine began, and Rachel turned around to converse with Kurt. He leaned forward again to hear what she said.

"It's a MIKA song," she explained, "he seems like more of a _Lollipop _guy to me." Kurt nodded, because she was completely right. If not _Lollipop_ then he would have expected _Grace Kelly_, not the lesser known hit that _Blue Eyes_ was.

"_So tired of living misunderstood, think you're a woman, I think you should;"_ Kurt caught a moment of eye contact between Jeff and Nick- they had never mentioned the show choir either- and it seemed like Nick was smirking about something. Kurt guessed it was the lyrics, since between the three of his Warbler friends none of them were currently interested in women._ "Come sorrow is so peculiar, comes in a day then it'll never leave you. You take a pill, wonder if it will fix you, then wonder why sorrow has never left you." _Blaine looked at Kurt again as he began the chorus. _"I'm talking 'bout blue eyes, blue eyes, what's the matter, matter? Blue eyes, blue eyes, what's the matter, matter? So blind, so blind, what's the matter, matter? Blue eyes, blue eyes, what's the matter with you?"_

Mercedes turned to Kurt and started tapping his arm repeatedly in excitement. She whispered, "You have blue eyes!" and he just nodded. Blaine had never made any comment about his eyes at all, but he wondered if maybe that was about to change. He was well aware that Blaine was probably singing it for him, and he was truly touched. The Warblers didn't seem like an easily persuaded group, even for someone with charisma like Blaine.

He clapped at the end of the number as the New Directions were moved from the auditorium to warm up back stage during the Warblers' last song. He turned around to look back at the stage as he walked with the group out, asking Blaine with his eyes. Blaine gave the slightest nod, and that was enough for him to know that it was meant for him. They had been good with nonverbal communication since the moment they had met, almost.

The New Directions' set went well, with Santana singing _Valerie _in such a way that Kurt didn't even feel bad about not being given a solo himself. It was nice for the numbers to go to people who weren't Rachel and Finn. He only managed to catch Blaine's eye once in the whole performance, but he could feel that his trio of Warblers were watching him and not the focal dancing or soloist.

After the competition ended and the results were announced- that both The Warblers and the New Directions would be going to Regionals- Mister Schuester gave them freedom for the half hour until the buses were due to take them home. Once everyone had been cleared out of the auditorium and into the large foyer spaces Kurt searched the crowd of blazers for his friends without abandoning his glee friends, who stood nearby.

"Looking for someone?" a caramel voice said from behind him. He turned around to see Blaine grinning at him.

"You, actually! Hey!" Kurt replied. Blaine held out his arms and Kurt stepped into his hug gladly. He wasn't sure when hugging as a greeting had become something that they did, but he wasn't complaining.

"You were great," Blaine said, "really stole the New Directions' set. You guys deserved the win, and Rachel Berry didn't even sing."

"Yeah, that was a real thing that happened. I didn't think the day would ever come," Blaine laughed, "but really, _I _was great? _You _were the one with the lead soloist position, mister 'I never talk about my glee club to my friends even though they always bitch about theirs to me'."

"I thought that you might appreciate my surprisingly well planned song choice more if you weren't expecting me to sing, let alone for me to be here."

"Well it worked. I was surprised, to say the least."

"You worked out that _you _are Blue Eyes, right?" Blaine confirmed. Kurt nodded, "Your eyes are beautiful, by the way. You know they change from day to day? Sometimes they're greener or greyer."

"They've been part of my body for my whole life," Kurt teased, "but yes, I've been told. Thank you for noticing."

"You're welcome. They're nice to look at." _You're nice to look at_, Kurt thought and was immediately proud for managing to contain it. Blaine's eyes were gorgeous too, just like the rest of him, but it didn't seem like the right time to say it.

"They're nice to look with," Kurt quipped, instead of his earlier thought. Blaine laughed a proper, bright eyed laugh, as Kurt's glee friends noticed that he was talking to someone and seemed to make a beeline for them.

"Kurt, who is your friend?" Rachel said, turning on her flirty voice. Kurt had come to know it well in the years he had known her. Mercedes whispered something to Tina behind her, undoubtedly about Blaine.

"Rachel, this is Blaine. Blaine, this is Rachel, Mercedes and Tina. You nearly met Mercedes the other week," Kurt introduced.

"I do remember these things, Kurt," Blaine said, "it's nice to meet you all."

"The Warblers were so good!" Rachel gushed, "I'm so glad that we both got through to the next round, because you definitely deserved it. Are you the usual soloist?"

"Yeah, I mean, I don't want to have all the solos, but the council seem to think it's a good idea. And I mean, well, I am only a sophomore. _Blue Eyes _was my suggestion, though. It isn't totally in Warbler fashion, but I really like the way it turned out." Blaine looked as Kurt as he mentioned the song, though he was talking to Rachel.

"Oh, it was fantastic!"

"Thanks."

"So, Blaine Warbler, do you have a girlfriend?" Kurt laughed as quietly as he could manage, and Blaine caught his eye to smile. No one was really sure exactly where Rachel was sitting in the on again/off again with Finn on that particular day after all the drama, but even if they were still a couple Rachel was fairly flirtatious.

"No, I don't," Blaine replied.

"He's not looking for a girlfriend, Rachel," Kurt said.

"But if he happened to _find _one...?" she said, all but batting her eyelashes at Blaine.

"Yeah, I'm gay, so..." Blaine said as Rachel's jaw visibly dropped, "and I've only recently managed to stop a thirteen year old from thinking she was my girlfriend, so I'm not exactly in the market for one." The three girls looked puzzled but Kurt laughed, and when Blaine caught his eye again the caramel eyes sparkled. They had gone through the Hadley experience together, really. Kurt couldn't remember ever seeing Blaine so honestly content.

Soon after Rachel pulled Mercedes and Tina away from Blaine, clearly trying to cover her tracks and appear less embarrassed than she was. Blaine watched her as she left before turning to Kurt and asking, "That's why Marley's too scared to join your glee club?"

"Yeah, pretty much. She can be very threatening when she wants to be. A couple of weeks ago she got all snarky at me for hanging out with Marley because she was a quiet freshman. She hasn't quite grasped that we're at the bottom of the food chain already," Kurt explained.

"But Marley really sings well. You would be lucky to have her, and from the friends of yours that I've met she would be lucky to have you."

"Glee used to be a safe space for me, but I'm not so sure anymore. The roleplay just has... something _more_. But it means I have friends to sit with at lunch and people to carry me into the nurse's office after an incident with some stairs."

"You and Marley should sing together. You know, as underappreciated talent and all that," Blaine suggested. Kurt didn't completely hate the idea. He loved Marley and she was easily one of his best friends in recent times. He hadn't even ever heard her sing and he thought that he could enjoy a duet or two with her.

"Since when have you ever heard me sing?" Kurt questioned.

"Well, I haven't, but I just know that you're good. Judging by the talent of your fellow glee members, you must have a fairly high standard and therefore you're a good singer yourself. So, the real question is why you didn't get a solo in this competition?"

"I don't know, to be honest. Mister Schuester- he's the teacher in charge of glee- specifically decided not to give the leads to Finn and Rachel and use the underused talent in the club, but here I am, still without a solo."

"The others did well, though, and you came out with a win, right? That gives you another competition to have a solo at."

"Regionals," Kurt nodded, "Though the prize of that is Nationals, so the solos will be handed back to Finn and Rachel again because we have to get there before we're going to win it." He rolled his eyes, and Blaine nodded sympathetically.

"I'd like to point out here that I don't actually _want _all the solos. I just get given two out of three at every competition because that's what the council wants. I don't really think it's a fair system, since Nick and Jeff had to fight to get their little solos in for the last number, and they did really well with their auditions and everything. But it's usually best not to question the council with these things."

"So you don't actually want the solos?" Kurt clarified, and Blaine nodded, "that's interesting."

"Oh! Except for _Blue Eyes_, that took a lot of effort since it's not exactly in the usual Warbler style. I had to be very persuasive for them to let me have the song in there. I just... if Nick and Jeff had been given that over me, I don't think it would have made quite the same point that I wanted it to."

"And what point was that, exactly?" Kurt asked hesitantly. He knew that the song had been aimed at him, even more so since Blaine had said it himself. But that Blaine had a point to be made... well, that just altered everything a little bit. He hoped that the point was about the huge crush that Blaine had on him too, but he knew that it would be too good to be true.

"That I know you aren't having a great time at school, that I want you to know that you can talk to me whenever about anything, that we _all _will do our best to keep you from getting to the point that you'll be taking pills for your sorrow," Blaine shrugged, "that all sounded much better in my head. But really, it would have been embarrassing if I got Jeff and Nick to sing to you for me." The pair chose that moment to come over to them, both opening their arms to hug Kurt by way of greeting like Blaine had.

"Hey Kurt!" Jeff said, "You did really well. I guess we'll be seeing you at Regionals, huh?"

"It's good to see you. Your friends seem nice," Nick added, even though he hadn't actually met any of them. "Anyway, we've gotta go, Blainers."

"Yeah, that's why we came over, woops. Though it is cool to see you, Kurtsies."

"I look forward to the day we compete against each other again, Kurt. Just, you know, by the way," Blaine said, "but it looks like I've got to go now."

"It would be kind of nice to compete _with_ each other sometime, though," Kurt said, sighing softly. Perhaps he and Blaine were going to be destined to a life of Romeo and Juliet forbidden inter-school love and rivalry. It had hardly worked out for Rachel and Jesse St. James, and he didn't want their relationship to end the same way.

That was, if they had a relationship in the first place. He was getting awfully ahead of himself.

"You know, I think I can arrange that," Blaine said. Kurt didn't have the time to wonder what he could possibly mean as they said their last round of goodbyes and see-you-on-Mondays, and Kurt finally rejoined his own group, ready to answer all their questions about how exactly it was that Kurt knew not one but three cute prep school boys from the Warblers.

* * *

The next Friday Kurt arrived at Luke and Erica's house to find that their living room had had all the furniture pushed away to leave a very open middle of the room, facing towards the TV. "Kurt!" Erica greeted, "welcome to the Dreamweaver semi-annual sing off." Kurt took a seat and looked at the Playstation and microphones set up in front of the muted TV as they waited for everyone to arrive. He wondered how much Blaine had to do with the sing-off, since they had talked about competing a week ago.

When Marley walked in and saw the room's positioning she lit up. "It's sing off week!" she said, sitting down next to Kurt. "Okay Erica, what's the twist this time?"

"We aren't just playing SingStar?" Kurt asked suspiciously. Knowing the group he wouldn't be surprised if they had managed to find a way to make a simple karaoke game dangerous.

"You'll see. We need to wait on a couple more people first," Erica explained. Soon everyone was there- literally every member of the roleplay had turned up, an event that didn't happen often- and Kurt realised that these twice yearly sing offs were a big deal in the group. Erica stood up by the TV to get the attention of the group, all of whom seemed eager to hear what the twist was.

Just as the group went quiet, Blaine called, "I call dibs on Kurt!" leaving Kurt blushing ever so slightly with flattery and excitement, Erica looking vaguely annoyed, and the rest of the group waiting in confusion for Erica to announce the twist. She sighed heavily.

"We're doing duets this time. Pick a partner and then we'll put you on the draw." She sat down by Luke, who had wheeled in a whiteboard drawn up in a tournament layout that didn't make a lot of sense, waiting for the pairs to approach them so they could be added to the chart. After all the teams had been established and portmanteaus given to each- Luke and Erica (Lurica), Marley and Unique (Marlique), Jeff and Nick (Niff), Kurt and Blaine (Klaine), Leo and Ethan (Lethan) and Hadley and Blake, her new boyfriend (Hadlake)- they all settled down in the semi circle again as Erica explained the competition. Kurt wasn't exactly sure why they were all listening so intently, other than that it was important to the group. He didn't quite grasp why either.

"Round one is qualifiers. Each team gets to choose one song and will have one song randomised. The two teams with the lowest combined score will be eliminated. Questions?"

"Who's going first?" Marley asked brightly. For the sake of fairness and time spent choosing, songs for the qualifier had been restricted to the original SingStar disk. Kurt wasn't sure how long these competitions had been running for or how long it had taken Erica and Luke to establish all of these little rules, but he admired the smoothness with which it seemed to run. Marley and Unique jumped up first, clearly with a good knowledge of what was on the game as they immediately settled into their duet of Blondie's _Heart of Glass. _

Blaine grabbed the game case and brought it over to Kurt so that they could choose a song together. "We can sing pretty much whatever you like, but for the sake of the competition if there's a song that I'm not confident enough with the tune of I'm going to veto it. I'm not so worried about whether or not I know the words, because the game doesn't count anything for that, but I need to have a tune in my mind to match," Blaine said. Kurt read the list over a few times, slowly narrowing down their choices.

"How would you feel about Madonna?"

"I can do _Like a Virgin_." They ended up singing next, and, if Kurt didn't say so himself, did well on the number. Neither of them had compromised vocal quality for the sake of hitting any of the notes, and they still came out with a score over 8000.

Hadley and Blake went next, singing _YMCA_, which Hadley was clearly not happy with and both of them looked equally awkward as they sang. The group danced around them, earning high quality bitch glares from Hadley, the kind of small detail to the girl that Kurt would never have expected. She was usually so sweet and quiet, but she definitely had a bitchy side to her.

Kurt couldn't help but notice how similar Blake was physically to Blaine. Aside from the scarily similar names, Blake was barely taller than Hadley was, and had dark curls like Blaine's, though they weren't cased in the gel that Blaine was so fond of using. Unlike Blaine though, Blake was obviously not comfortable standing up in front of a lot of people, let alone singing.

Nick and Jeff sang _Crashed the Wedding, _neither of them looking at the screen in favour of dancing around and facing the group members, and they still pulled through with a score to rival Blaine and Kurt's. Kurt wondered if they had both gone through a boy band phase right when Busted was the height of Britpop.

Leo and Ethan chose to sing _Don't Stop Movin'_, both very much having fun with song and not taking themselves or the competition too seriously. Any inhibitions that Ethan had clearly left as soon as he took the microphone, his other forms of charisma easily slipping into place instead.

Erica and Luke went last, singing _One Love_, a song that they clearly both knew well. They didn't even have any time to confer before they selected the song, both just automatically feeling comfortable with it. Kurt figured it was because they played the game so often.

For the round of randomisation each team was made to sing whichever song Erica rolled when she pressed the random select button. Marley and Unique ended up with _Round Round_ by the Sugababes and were both clearly confident in the song and sold it. Kurt and Blaine sang _Livin' La Vida Loca_, which actually earned them a round of applause from the group.

"Why the enthusiasm?" Kurt asked as he caught his breath at the end of the song, though he had truly gotten into the number and even gave the group a signature Hummel shimmy.

"Because you were two gay men selling the straight sex appeal just as well as Ricky Martin the gay god did," Leo said.

"Preach to that, honey," Unique said.

Hadley and Blake sang _Complicated, _a song that Hadley clearly knew very well (even if she didn't quite have the talent to sell it), and Blake looked just as uncomfortable as he had before, even on a song that he was clearly even less confident with. Kurt hadn't picked Hadley as the Avril Lavigne type but was still not even slightly surprised by her commitment to the song.

Nick and Jeff landed on _I Believe in a Thing Called Love_, which they both clearly enjoyed as they bounced around and struggled to hit the high notes and somehow still managed to pull through on spectacularly. When they were asked why they knew the song so well, Jeff answered with, "It's a perfect car song."

Leo and Ethan sang _Groove is in the Heart_ by Deee-Lite, which clearly neither had heard before they were made to sing it, and Luke and Erica sang Atomic Kitten's _Eternal Flame_, which resulted in a lot of exaggerated girly gestures from Luke as he played it up.

The times that Kurt had played the game with his glee friends it had always turned into more of a battle for the microphones than anything else, so he was surprised to find that he was enjoying seeing each of the other teams perform as much as he enjoyed performing himself.

Unsurprisingly, as if only based on the scores of the second round, Blake and Hadley and Leo and Ethan were knocked out. Both teams seemed to mysteriously vanish from the room after that had been announced, and no one even bothered to ask where they had gone for they all already knew.

For the next round, the teams got to select the song that they wanted to sing, but it had to be taken from a disk that they chose randomly from a bag. Kurt was instructed to roll a die that he had been passed and when he asked why he was doing it Luke explained that it was to establish the draw order. He rolled a two, and immediately looked to Blaine apologetically. Blaine didn't seem to mind too much. Luke rolled a four, Marley rolled a one and Jeff rolled a five, placing Kurt and Blaine in third place in the draw order.

Jeff drew first, taking SingStar Party, followed by Erica taking SingStar Pop, Blaine drawing SingStar 80's and Unique drawing SingStar Rocks. Everyone other than Marley and Unique (who were immediately unhappy) seemed content with their draws.

Jeff and Nick chose _Don't Go Breaking My Heart_ after arguing over whether they should sing that or _I Got You Babe_.

"You could continue on your Busted streak and sing _Year 3000_," Blaine had suggested.

"But those are _the_ two classic duets," Nick had said, with eager nods from Jeff. Kurt wondered if their passion for the songs would kill their shot at making it through to the next round, before reminding himself that he shouldn't care whether another team made it or not. Jeff sang Kiki Dee and Nick sang Elton John, and everyone was definitely pleasantly surprised with how well they did, not just on the score but also on their chemistry as they sang.

Erica and Luke sang _Stacy's Mom_, with Erica on the lead and Luke managing to hit the lower notes of the backup. Aside from a discussion about how Rachel Hunter wasn't really _that _attractive, their song passed without too much fuss.

Blaine nearly had an existential crisis when he and Kurt mulled over their options on 80's songs. He had an excessively long list of songs from the game that he was more than happy singing, which was why they settled on _Karma Chameleon_ in compromise. They came out with a score over 9000, giving them a SingStar, much to upset of their friends around them.

"You guys picked the easiest song on the easiest of any of the games!" Nick complained.

"They did sound great," Erica reasoned.

"And they got a lucky game choice. That's not their fault," Luke said. The song had sounded great with both of their voices, and Kurt was glad he had managed to keep focussed while Blaine was singing. He kept shooting Kurt these adorable little half smiles.

Marley and Unique went last, and neither was happy with their song possibilities. They ended up on _4ever, _the unexplained song by the Veronicas that barely suited the rest of the songs available. Though the scores had been incredibly close, Kurt and Blaine and Jeff and Nick were the two pairs with the highest scores from the round, which put them through to the final round.

"We've lost half our audience," Erica said. The two teams left in the game sat on one side of the circle with Luke, Erica, Marley and Unique sitting on the other side. "I would go looking for the others but I'm worried about what I might walk in on. Audience of six it is."

For the final round, the audience got to select the song that they wanted the pair to sing, though the team got to choose which of the games they wanted their selection to be taken from, in the sake of fairness. They gave Nick and Jeff _Uptown Girl_, which both were content with, and Kurt and Blaine ended up with _Kids_, which Kurt was willing to sing on the condition that he got to be Kylie Minogue.

The scores were insanely close, but somehow, Kurt and Blaine came out just on top. They were only a few points away from one another, since no one had made any ridiculous slips and they were playing on easy mode after all, but it was still a surprise. Nick and Jeff were singing from 80's, which they themselves had said was the easiest of the games on which to do well.

Blaine hugged Kurt when they saw that they had beaten the score, and though Nick and Jeff were initially disappointed- the group took the competition _very _seriously- they had to admit that it was a well deserved win.

Kurt just couldn't get over how good his voice had sounded next to Blaine's, how they had managed to attain such high scores even as a pair. The hugs that followed in Blaine's celebratory silliness were a bonus that Kurt didn't dream of complaining about.

* * *

_A/N: a looooooooootttt of songs got mentioned in this chapter, but really the only important one is Blue Eyes by MIKA. All the SingStar songs were lifted semi-randomly right from my own game collection, and I apologise if the whole international release thing means that I've put a few too many Australianish songs in the game that aren't on other versions. _

_I've been meaning to reply to the reviews from the last chapter but never quite got there, but they made me really happy, like, REALLY happy. I'm not sure whose idea it was for you all to comment at the same time saying how much you looked forwards to updates, but I'm glad it happened. Here's the chapter a little bit early in return :')_


	9. Rude Intrusions

In the last few sessions since Nightbird had joined all the other captive characters in JetCat's lair, White Wings had finally come to liberate everyone, Dovetail and Hawkbeak had made their relationship public knowledge, and Nightbird had finally flown Darcy home at the end of a date.

Kurt was sitting with Unique and Hadley as their characters grilled Darcy about his relationship with Nightbird. "Speaking of the boyfriend..." Unique said, tilting her head slightly forward to gesture behind Kurt. Before he could even turn around, Blaine's arms closed around him.

"Hey babe," Blaine said, "ready to go?" Kurt nodded.

"Of course. Bye, ladies!" Kurt said as he stood up, falling into a rhythm with Blaine as they walked away. "I've never noticed how much walking we do on these dates," Kurt told him, letting Blaine take his hand.

"I like walking with you. It means we don't have to do anything but talk," Blaine said, "and talking means that I get to know everything about you. And there's a lot more to you than you let on at first Darcy, I know it." Kurt suppressed a laugh. He was finding more out about Darcy all the time too. "Are you cold?"

"Well, I'm not warm." Honestly Kurt felt bad for those of them who were in hero costumes, since they didn't really allow for much warmth. They couldn't easily put on more layers, either. Kurt had layered up and still wasn't feeling dressed for the slowly worsening weather. Blaine wrapped an arm around him, pulling him close to his side.

"Better?" Kurt smiled at him.

"Always."

"We'll have to cuddle later," Blaine said. They walked in silence for a moment before he asked, "Would it annoy you if there was some kind of disaster like, right now, which meant I had to go off with White Wings and save the day?"

"I'd be annoyed, yeah. But I totally understand it. You just have to expect to deal with it when your boyfriend is a superhero." As if on cue, Nick jogged over to them, stopping them in their tracks.

"Nightbird, you've gotta come. It's Braxton, he... just come and see for yourself, okay?" Blaine looked at Kurt apologetically.

"I have to go," he said, "rain check on that cuddling?" Kurt nodded, and Blaine pecked him on the cheek quickly as if it was second nature. Kurt watched them run away, and as Leo approached him he was too phased out by the lingering feeling of Blaine's lips on his cheek to respond right away.

"...sucks, huh?" Leo said. Kurt blinked at him, trying to remember what had come first in that sentence.

"What?" Leo laughed.

"You're so in love with him." Kurt wanted to be flattered by the compliment to his acting skills, but he was fairly certain that everyone in the group knew that he had a crush on Blaine, even without their characters dating.

"It's a bit soon to call it love," Kurt said, trying to pull it back to the scene.

"If you love him, then why wait?"

"Because he might not love me back."

"Darcy, let me get real with you here for a moment," Leo said, and Kurt waited patiently for his elaboration, "Nightbird has never dated anyone before you. He's had offers. A lot of offers. And every single time he's turned them down because of his job. He hasn't wanted to go through any hassle of dating civilians because they can't handle it when he has to bail on them. For some reason though, he's choosing to deal with that for you. Whether or not it's too early to call it love, there's something more than mutual attraction there."

Kurt froze, and it was in no way related to what Leo had been saying to him.

"Um, Darcy?" Leo said gently, prodding Kurt in the arm softly. He shifted himself to follow Kurt's line of sight, and began to look between the figure walking towards them and Kurt's expression. Kurt knew he wasn't being even slightly subtle in his reaction, completely breaking character. "Oh, shit," Leo said, "I'll be right back, K-" he stopped before he broke character any further and ran towards the bench tapping it twice even though the session wasn't due to end for quite a lot longer, and then tried to alert the others of what was going on.

Kurt couldn't move. Karofsky had come into the park, infiltrating one of his few safe spaces left. Leo had left him alone, and he couldn't leave where he was without making it easier for Karofsky to intercept him. Why were all of his friends _behind _his bully?

"Hey, fairy," Karofsky said by way of greeting, "who was that guy you were with, your little bum buddy? Is he a faggot too, huh? It's a nice costume he has, really shows off the gay," he continued. Kurt wasn't even sure he knew what he was saying, just pouring out a torrent of insults as they came to him.

"Go away, Karofsky," Kurt said calmly. He knew he was well and truly out of character, but he doubted the others minded at that moment. "There aren't any lockers for you to slam me into here, so you can just leave me alone, okay? Please. You don't have to prove yourself to anyone."

"You don't get the right to talk, homo!" Karofsky loomed over Kurt, getting closer yet. He tried not to flinch away too much. _Courage_.

"Your idiot homophobe friends aren't here right now! You don't have to swear by your heterosexuality!"

"I thought you weren't ever going to fucking mention that. I'll fucking kill you if you tell anyone." Kurt squeezed his eyes shut, clenching and unclenching his hands at his side. He could tell that Karofsky was doing the same, but rather in preparation to hit him.

He had never been punched by him before, always just shoved against a wall or locker or pushed to the ground. This was different, and he had no clue why. The collision of Karofsky's fist with his ribcage startled him- he had never expected him to aim that low. He wasn't just going to stand there passively as he acted as a human punching bag for the other boy, and pushed Karofsky away. His hands had barely touched Karofsky's chest before he was pulled far away from him, a wall of superheroes coming between them.

Luke and Nick were holding Karofsky back as he hurled insults at them, while Jeff, Blaine, Leo and Ethan stood in his immediate line of fire, willing to take the hits for Kurt. As if he snapped back to reality, Kurt began to cry. He could hear the others saying things to Karofsky and the occasional shout, but he wasn't able to process any of it. Erica was at his side, rubbing circles on his back soothingly and whispering support to him. The other girls seemed to be equally terrified of the bully and were clustered behind the wall of boys, but quietly supporting one another more than they were Kurt.

"Kurt?" Luke said, his strong voice being an odd sort of comfort to Kurt, "he's gone now. You're okay." He could almost believe it; Luke said it with such conviction.

"We're going to take a vote now. Put your hand up if you're in favour of ending the session early," Erica said. Kurt was too busy wiping his eyes to even consider raising his hand, but Erica didn't seem to mind that. "It's unanimous, we'll end now. You can all go home; I'm not going to keep you with notices." There was some shuffling about, but no one seemed to actually leave.

"Kurt," Blaine said, appearing in front of him. The position would have startled him if it had been anyone else, but Blaine's shortness managed to make him infinitely less scary than Karofsky. He figured it was probably best not to mention that to anyone. "I would ask if you were okay, but I think we all know the answer to that."

"I think I just need a hug," Kurt said, and Blaine immediately folded him into his arms, not letting go even as he talked to other people. Kurt realised that Blaine was going to wait until he pulled away first, and finally let go.

"I'm going to take you home."

"Okay."

"Nick, would you mind following us to Kurt's house to drop my car off?" They were back at Kurt's house in a matter of minutes, three cars pulling up. Nick hopped out of Blaine's car, passed him the keys and got into Ethan's car behind them, not asking any questions. Kurt's hands were shaking too much for him to unlock the front door of the house, so Blaine took the key from him and opened the door. Kurt wasn't sure why he was so traumatised by the encounter. It was really no worse than anything he had faced at school. His emotions were too overwhelming to really work through at that point.

Blaine looked at him with wide, concerned eyes, full of care and worry for Kurt, wordlessly asking him what he needed. Darcy and Nightbird had always been good at communicating nonverbally, but this was different. Kurt sat down in the living room, Blaine immediately sitting at his side. "Can you stay?" Kurt asked quietly, and Blaine nodded. They sat quietly for a moment as Kurt focussed on breathing properly, stopping his shaking.

"He hit you," Blaine eventually said quietly. Kurt nodded. "Can I see?" Kurt was nervous about taking his top off in front of Blaine, naturally, but he also knew it was something he needed to do. He hadn't shown the bruises to anyone, but for some reason beyond his understanding he trusted Blaine completely. He peeled off his last layer, thankful for his warm house, leaving all the evidence of the bullying on display. "Kurt..." Blaine said, wordless at the sight. His torso was covered in bruises of various sizes and colours, with a red, darkening patch where Karofsky's fist had hit his ribs. He turned around to show Blaine his back, which he knew was far worse. His shoulders tended to take most of the impact from the locker shoves, and it was visible.

"Why haven't you ever taken this to the principal?" Blaine asked, "Don't you think this much damage is enough to show that you're being physically injured by _him_?"

"Because then they ask questions, and he told me that if I ever tell anyone that he's gay then he will kill me."

"You really think he would do that, Kurt?" Kurt put his shirt back on and sat back down on the couch beside Blaine.

"I don't know," Kurt said quietly, worriedly. Blaine put his arm around Kurt's shoulders loosely, pulling him into his side. It felt completely ordinary between them and it was nothing they hadn't done already while roleplaying, but Kurt knew this was entirely different. The physical side of the action wasn't new, but coming from Blaine it was. Kurt wriggled his arms around him as they got comfortable, and then it dawned on him that they were cuddling.

"Are you feeling better now?" Blaine asked.

"I think I'll be okay in the long term. This really wasn't worse than anything I get at school, and I had a whole team of heroes there to defend me."

"Well, a group of nerds in spandex, anyway."

"Do you want to go and change?" Kurt said, realising that Blaine was still in his Nightbird costume. He hadn't even thought anything of it sooner.

"No, I'm okay. We just got comfy. So if this was as bad as it is at school, is this how you always react?"

"Not at all. I think... I wasn't worried about myself. The day he chose to bother me by tormenting Marley it was bad enough and I could hardly forgive myself for letting it happen. I was terrified for you all. I'm by no means the only gay guy in the group, to start with," Kurt said, "I think I was also upset or angry or something that he had come into my last free space. Dreamweaver is the furthest I can usually get from it all, and he came in anyway, and that makes me mad."

"I understand that, I think," Blaine said. He shifted slightly, tightening his arms around Kurt almost possessively.

"I'm sorry that you all had to get involved and end early," Kurt said quietly. They were so close that it didn't seem at all necessary to talk very loud. Blaine would have jumped to reassure him if they hadn't been sitting the way they were.

"Kurt, no. We're your friends. If we had wanted to keep out of it we could have, but you know why Leo ran off? Because he knew that he couldn't fight off Karofsky on his own."

Kurt paused for a moment in thought. "How did Leo know that it was Karofsky? How did he know _anything_?" he asked. Blaine sighed.

"Will you get catastrophically angry if I tell you that I've told a few people that you're being bullied?" He looked at Kurt with those big, hopeful eyes, and Kurt couldn't be mad at him for him.

"No, it's okay. It's not exactly a secret."

"Well, it isn't exactly hard to pick a large jock looking type in a McKinley letterman jacket anyway, so even though none of us have actually seen Karofsky other than Marley; it wasn't exactly hard to guess." Kurt hummed in agreement. "You didn't want any of them to know that you didn't fall."

"Because that's different. It just... leads to more questions."

"It wasn't just me, you know. Marley told Unique, because they tell each other everything, and they both told Erica and Luke. They told me, even though I already knew, and then it kind of spread."

"They told you?" Kurt asked, having never heard that part of it all himself.

"They noticed that we were getting close, I guess, thought I should know," Blaine said.

"It's funny, because I think it happened the other way around. You knew and then we became better friends." Kurt remembered then that they were, for lack of a better term, cuddling. If that wasn't an indicator of how much better friends they had gotten, he wasn't sure what was. Finn walked into the living room and looked shocked at the pair, and Blaine just gave him a little _not now _gesture that Finn seemed to accept as he continued walking through, not even lapsing their conversation at all.

"I don't think you could have trusted me enough for any of this other stuff if we hadn't talked about my bullying first, Kurt."

"Probably. Does it matter?" Blaine went to say something, but then his phone rang, breaking the flow between them. Kurt wriggled away from him, making space for Blaine to take his phone out of... Kurt wasn't sure where exactly he had pulled it from, but it appeared as though he had a secret pocket somewhere in his suit.

"It's my dad," Blaine explained, looking apologetically at Kurt, "I've really got to take this, sorry."

"No, it's fine. Go ahead." Kurt decided it was time to wash his face after all the tears, simultaneously giving Blaine some privacy in the living room as he left to the bathroom. He couldn't help but overhear Blaine's conversation with his father while he wiped his face.

"Yeah, I was at my improv group, but I finished early so I'm at my friend's house... yes, dad, I_ have_ known him long enough to know that he isn't going to kill me... he won't injure my vocal chords either, honestly. We're not shouting." Kurt couldn't help but giggle slightly at the conversation that Blaine was having. Calling the roleplay an 'improv group' was interesting, but it wasn't totally incorrect, and it seemed to keep Blaine's dad happy. "Yeah, tomorrow I have piano and vocal lessons... No, show choir practice was today... yes, I'm still the lead soloist... Look, I'll be home by seven, okay? We can talk about all this during dinner... dad, Dalton doesn't _have _a school musical. Yeah. Okay. Bye." Kurt took that as his cue to walk naturally from the bathroom, pretending that he hadn't been listening to most of the conversation.

"Sorry, my dad was just pestering me about how my acting class was going," Blaine said. He made his way back to the couch and sat down, Kurt joining him. "Do you want to cuddle again?" Kurt nodded and shuffled closer so Blaine could wrap his arms around him, glad that it wasn't just some kind of one off thing that had happened between them. That just about counted as a conversation, and that was fine with Kurt.

"And your acting class is a cover for nerds in spandex," Kurt prompted.

"Exactly, but to tell my dad that it's an improvisational workshop seems to be better. Nick and Jeff play along with it when they talk to him, so that helps."

"Does your dad always just call you to check how your classes are going?"

Blaine sighed. "A lot of the time, yeah. But if I was at home he would be asking why I wasn't practicing some instrument or another. Last week he asked if I had done my violin practice."

"And?"

"I've never played violin in my life."

"Um, okay. Why do you take so many instrumental lessons?" Kurt asked. "Sorry, I'm asking a lot of questions. I don't mean to be nosey." He absolutely did mean to be nosey. He still knew hardly anything about the boy who was rapidly becoming one of his best friends, and if Blaine was about to start talking, Kurt was going to prompt it accordingly.

"No, it's fine. You would find all this out within a minute of stepping into my house, to be honest, so it's probably best you get some advance warning. Do you want the short answer or the long answer?"

"I have time."

"By learning multiple instruments I'm increasing my repertoire which is a marketable skill when applying for colleges, as my mom and dad tell me. I'm also involved in about as many extracurricular performance groups as I can manage to keep them happy, because that will look good, too. So, for college."

"'For college' being the short answer?"

"No," Blaine said, "the short answer is that I have stage parents."

"So they want you to..." Kurt started.

"Be a musical theatre major. They don't mind too much where I go to college, so long as I have an acting degree. I'm thinking New York."

"Blaine, you're a sophomore. You have years yet before you even have to start worrying."

"Not to them, I don't. Best to get started early, you see."

"...The other week you told me that you don't really want all the solos. Is that parental pressure too? Because you really are very good."

"Thanks, Kurt," Blaine said, naturally and politely accepting the compliment first, "No, well, not really. I love performing, I really do. They just push that I'm constantly practicing and improving and that kind of sucks the fun out of it. My brother Cooper is an actor, and he's not exactly great at it- but he's living in LA, he gets the odd commercial here and there, and it keeps them happy."

"Ah, so you got all the talent?" Kurt teased.

"Well, not _all_ the talent," Blaine said, blushing slightly, "they just started an awful lot earlier with me. Coop's almost ten years older than me, you see, so by then they knew that I needed to be stuck in my first classes as a preschooler."

"So singing?" Kurt asked. Of all the things he knew about Blaine, singing certainly seemed to be the most logical of the lessons for him as a preschooler.

"Um, no, I actually did ballet when I was little. Only for a couple of years, and then when I was six I started piano and singing lessons. I picked up guitar the summer before I started high school."

"And that one was your choice?" Blaine nodded. "I did ballet, too. But it was at my request, not because my mom thought that I needed to perfect my young dance skills."

"When did you stop?"

"Right about the first time someone called me gay." To make it worse, it had been one of the parents of a girl in his class. Nowadays Kurt could only imagine he would say _"Can't you just grow up?" _but the young Kurt Hummel was powerless against adults, no matter how immature.

"Oh. Ouch."

"Yeah."

"I'm glad your parents let you take the lessons in the first place. There are a lot of parents out there who would worry that encouraging their son to dance would just set him up for being gay," Blaine said. Kurt stifled a laugh when he realised that both of the boys he knew who had done ballet- him and Blaine- were both indeed gay.

"I'm eternally grateful for how supportive my parents are. Or was, I suppose is the case of my mother." There was nothing sad in his correction; he just felt that it was one that needed to be made sometimes. He missed his mom all the time, but he wasn't lacking without her around. "Your parents didn't worry?"

"Cooper is one of the most heterosexual men I know, and they were a little surprised when I came out initially but they got over themselves pretty quickly. They both come from backgrounds where they can't afford to be startled by gay men," Blaine explained with a little shrug. Kurt was glad his experience had been so painless.

"Oh, what do your parents do?" Kurt asked.

"My dad was- and still is- an actor. His company isn't hugely exciting these days, really more of a community theatre kind of thing. I try not to get involved past seeing the shows on opening night, but they tour around a bit and I think my dad directs or something, I don't know. My mum was a ballerina, but she retired before she hit thirty, as most of them do. Now she's living off of a quiet fortune that she inherited."

"Well, no wonder they're stage parents then. You would think they would be the standard living vicariously through you parents."

"I wish. That would be better than this whole never meeting their standard thing. Like, I can perform at theme parks, that's a thing I've done, but I'll never be as good an actor as _he _is." Kurt knew that Blaine didn't mean Cooper. He meant his father, whose perception of his own skills was so high that his son could never match it. He wasn't sure he ever wanted to meet the man who made Blaine feel so small. He snuggled just a tiny bit closer to Blaine, telling him that he would always be good enough, knowing that between them enough tears had already been shed that day.

* * *

_A/N: snaps for my friend Fraser who is basically the reason this chapter got finished on time!  
_


	10. Fun Party

**To: **Defenders of Dreamweaver _(list)_

**From: **Erica Leathart _(imbringingsexy-jet-cat)_

**Subject: **It's getting cold

Hey guys,

It's well and truly winter now, so all Wednesday sessions are being shifted to our house after our holiday break until it gets warms enough for us to use the park again. Once school has started up again for you in the New Year we'll get back to the roleplay, but for now just have fun with your families and all that other good stuff.

Even though it would be inappropriate for Luke and I to go, Jeff has asked us to pass on that he is having a New Year's party at his house and that you are all invited (he told me to point to Kurt here, but I didn't mention this because the session ended before we could discuss this stuff).

As per usual, any ICCs can be sent to Luke and we will count them as having happened. Unless you're Leo and Ethan, because the Carlton/Hawkbeak thing is getting weird and you never even talk to each other during the sessions. I mean really you guys, do we need to start a drug ring?

Happy holidays!

Erica (and Luke)

* * *

**To: **all

**From: **Blaine Anderson _(Anderson-Blaine)_

**Subject: **RE: it's getting cold

...drug ring?

Did we miss something? o_O

Blaine

...

"_And he's got to be strong, and he's got to be fast, and he's got to be fresh from the fight."_

* * *

**To: **all

**From: **Leonard Kavex _(LeoKavex)_

**Subject: **RE: it's getting cold

We weren't IN a drug ring! We were just trying to DIFFUSE a drug ring.

There's a difference, gosh.

* * *

**To: **all

**From: **Ethan Thompson _(ethanasaurus)_

**Subject: **RE: it's getting cold

Leo, we did invent a hypothetical drug ring of NPCs to diffuse. That's almost like starting a drug ring.

All I'm saying is that we aren't perfect, even if Erica exaggerated a teeny bit :)

* * *

**To: **all

**From: **Leonard Kavex _(LeoKavex)_

**Subject: **bitch please

You all know that I'm as close to perfect as y'all are gonna get. Come absorb the fabulous while you can ;)

* * *

After a lot of insistence from Blaine, Kurt finally gave in and decided to go to Jeff's New Year's Eve party. They had arranged for everyone to stay over at Jeff's house since so many of them would be coming from Lima, and Westerville was far enough away to stop them from going home too late at night. Kurt drove Marley, Unique, Leo and Hadley over from Lima, since all the others were from Westerville anyway, and all of them planned to stay the night somewhere in Westerville, whether or not that ended up as being Jeff's house after all.

Kurt did a double take as Hadley confirmed for him that they were in fact in the right place for the party. Jeff's house was huge, with a well tended garden out the front and ivy draping the walls of the house. It was the single most stereotypical house for a rich family that Kurt had ever seen, practically oozing Von Trapp, and it didn't fit the image he had of Jeff at all.

"It's a big house," Marley said first, as they all got out of the car.

"He has a big family," Leo contributed, "I guess they need the space."

"How big is big?"Unique asked.

"I think he has four siblings, but I don't know where or when I heard that," Kurt said, "I'm not really the best source of information. Still the newbie, remember?"

"Four sounds about right," Marley agreed. The group headed to the door together, which was thrown open before they even got there by Jeff.

"Hey!" he said excitedly, "everyone's downstairs in the rec room. You can leave your coats and stuff up here. There are drinks and things down there, just go ahead and help yourselves." Leo and Hadley raced down the stairs right away while the others hung back a bit. Kurt mostly couldn't follow them by how fast they dashed off and he had never been to Jeff's house in order to know where the stairs were.

"By drinks do you mean like, alcohol?" Marley asked Jeff quietly, obviously embarrassed by her question. Sometimes Kurt forgot just how much younger than him she was, but then she made it clear.

Jeff wrinkled up his nose. "My parents are in the living room. Besides, everything is more fun when you can remember it the next day." Marley breathed a sigh of relief, and Kurt was honestly glad that he wasn't the only one who didn't want to drink that night.

The group headed downstairs, Jeff clearly satisfied that everyone he had expected had arrived. In the rec room, Blaine, Nick, Ethan and a girl that Kurt didn't recognise were playing ping-pong, Hadley and Leo were standing by the food table and there was a small group by the TV, watching some movie that Kurt didn't immediately know. It appeared as though the members of the roleplay weren't the only ones invited to the party, but he didn't mind that too much. Kurt made his way over to the ping-pong table to say hi to the others that he did know, not missing Blaine's grin as he got close.

"Hey!" Blaine greeted, catching the ball instead of hitting it to offer his arms open to Kurt for a hug, which he accepted.

"Hi," Kurt said, "and hi to you guys, too," he added as he stepped away from Blaine.

"Do you want to swap in?" the girl asked.

"Sure, unless you want to keep playing."

"No, I'm really awful. You would think I'd be better since I live here, but I'm not."

"Oh, right- Kurt, this is Jaz, Jaz, this is Kurt," Nick introduced, "and Jaz, no offence, but I think I'd prefer Kurt as a partner right about now."

"That's okay. I could go and get Jeffrey or Leo, if you guys wanted to play proper couples," Jaz suggested. Blaine looked puzzled for a moment.

"Oh! We aren't a couple," Blaine said, glancing towards Kurt.

"Sorry, Jeff said that... never mind." She shook her head and then walked off, leaving Kurt to fill her space at the table.

"Jaz is Jeff's twin sister," Nick supplied, although Kurt had never asked, "and over there is his younger brother, Josiah." Kurt looked over at the TV watchers and found that he could quite easily pick the blond in the group who could be a Sterling.

"Doesn't he have other siblings?" Kurt asked. Blaine passed him the ball and he served, and they began to fall into the rhythm of playing.

"Yeah, he has two older brothers, JJ and James, but they're at college."

"...So all of their names start with J?"

"Yup. Junior, James, Jasmine, Jeffrey, Josiah." Ethan missed the ball and began to apologise to Blaine profusely as he retrieved it from where it had bounced to behind them. They kept playing for a while until Hadley and Josiah began hovering as though they wanted to play, and Nick and Ethan's boyfriends started to glance at them flirtatiously from across the room. Blaine and Kurt decided to stop playing along with the others, mostly not wanting to get involved in anything with Hadley. There was still some tension between them, even with her having a new, frighteningly Blaine-esque boyfriend.

With cans of soda in their hands, Blaine took Kurt around the room to introduce him to the people he hadn't met yet. Most of the other roleplayers had evidently met the others at previous parties or something, but Kurt was still by far the newest member of the group. He was glad to have Blaine as overlap to ensure he met people. It turned out most of the guys he didn't know already were Warblers, and the girls were either their girlfriends or Jasmine's friends (or in a few cases they were both). There were a lot of names for him to remember, and he barely bothered to even listen.

"We should play an entirely sober game of spin the bottle," Josiah suggested, tapping Jeff's arm repeatedly. Something inside Kurt didn't hate the suggestion.

"You just want to kiss Marley," Nick teased.

"Can we play?" Josiah said, not denying Nick's accusations at all.

"I'll play," Jeff said, "let's find a bottle; you get interested people in a circle." Josiah rounded up a fair group, though there were still a few who were adamantly not going to play. Kurt found himself sitting in the circle between Marley and Nick, with Blaine a few people over. There were a few of the other Warblers in the circle- Wes, Trent, and Thad, Kurt thought- and a few of the girls- Sophia, Kendra, Mel and Chloe, as Marley whispered to him. They had seemingly been brought in to balance out the heterosexuality a little bit more. Kurt could tell that Marley was nervous about playing, but by the way she smiled back at Josiah he wasn't worried about her too much.

"Standard rules," Jeff announced, "Re-spins only to avoid incest, same sex couples are accepted if not encouraged-" Kurt watched as the various couples in the circle fired winks at one another, "and you're going to end up kissing two people in a row, deal with it."

Jeff spun first, landing on Nick. The pair kissed with a lot of enthusiasm and obvious tongue, finally breaking apart to Jasmine's call of, "you rigged it!"

"Never question the bottle," Jeff said mischievously as he filled Nick's space in the circle. Nick's spin landed on Jaz, and he quirked an eyebrow at her. She made her way into the circle and kissed him quickly, but no one complained about its chasteness. They all understood that kissing your twin's boyfriend right after they kissed them was going to be odd for all involved.

More kisses followed, not all of them as entertaining as others. Jaz and Trent. Trent and Kendra. Kendra and Chloe. Chloe and Wes. Wes and Sophia. Sophia and Josiah.

Josiah somehow managed to spin Marley on his turn, and their kiss was sweet, even for the nature of the game. Everyone in the circle seemed to smirk about it, as though there was some history there that Kurt hadn't caught up on yet. When Josiah returned to the circle, he smiled supportively at Marley as she spun the bottle. She seemed entirely relieved when it fell on Kurt, and their friendship made it easy to get it done without any fuss.

Then, with Kurt in the middle of the circle, he wondered what the worst case scenario would be. Kissing one of the Warblers who he barely knew, he thought. The bottle spun a few times, and seemed to take forever to slow down.

Finally, the bottle stopped spinning, pointed perfectly at Blaine.

Kurt had too many feelings to pinpoint which one exactly he was feeling most- whether it was excitement, shyness, or fear. Blaine didn't seem to be shy about it at all; moving to the middle of the circle and cupping Kurt's face gently, looking him in the eyes with a soft smile.

Their lips finally met, and Kurt thought he could die happy in that moment. Blaine's lips were soft and warm, and they moved along Kurt's with ease and grace. Blaine broke the kiss for a moment before kissing him again, that time catching Kurt's top lip between his, setting them up for a much less chaste kiss. Kurt knew that the others were starting to call things at them, but in that moment he just couldn't care less. Blaine finally pulled away, and Kurt lamented the fact that he couldn't just kiss Blaine again. He retreated to the open spot in the circle, while Blaine spun the bottle.

There were footsteps on the stairs before the bottle had stopped, and the three Sterling kids looked worriedly towards the staircase, causing the circle to quickly disband as they all sensed the panic of a parent coming down.

"The pizzas are here," Jeff's dad said, "Do you want me to bring them down?" he asked his children.

"Me and Kurt will get them," Blaine said quickly, grabbing Kurt's hand and pulling him up the stairs before he even had time to think about it. Blaine led him to the kitchen where the boxes were stacked on the counter, but stopped Kurt before he could reach for a pile. "I, uh," Blaine started, but he stopped talking right away. "Hi," he said quietly instead, and they both laughed.

"Don't get all awkward about it now, we cuddle on a regular basis," Kurt said, trying to lighten the mood.

"Um, yeah, I guess we do," Blaine laughed uneasily, "but... that was new."

"Yeah, it was. I, uh, I liked it, though. It was a good new."

"Right, good new," Blaine repeated. Kurt wasn't sure how much he was blushing, but he figured that Blaine was feeling as awkward as he was too. "I'm sorry, Kurt. You deserved something better than that for your first real kiss. I mean, Marley doesn't really count, right? You barely touched each other."

"Oh, that wasn't really my first kiss," Kurt said, trying to be casual. In honesty that was about as real as his kisses had gotten, the first where he had really felt anything.

"What?" Blaine said, "But you've never dated anyone."

"Since when did anyone have to be dating anyone?" Kurt said, "My first kiss was a cheerleader at my school, Brittany. I didn't count that on account of she's a girl and I'm gay."

"Fair enough, but then I'd still be the first guy." Kurt laughed humourlessly.

"Nope, Karofsky kind of took that one from me already."

"Oh Kurt, I'm so sorry; I didn't mean to bring that up or anything. You could have told me that he kissed you sooner, you know? We've talked about all the other Karofsky stuff already."

"I know, I just don't believe in outing people, I guess. I don't know, Blaine. I just tried to move past it. It was awful, but I had things to distract me, more important things."

"Such as?" Blaine paused, "how long ago was this?"

"A couple of months, right after I started the LARP, actually. It was the day of Nightbird and Darcy's first date," Kurt admitted, "Dreamweaver is the furthest I can run from him, remember?"

"Kurt, I could have kissed you before him, it's not fair that he got there first because I'm slow, I'm so, so, sorry..." Kurt leapt for joy on the inside at the thought that Blaine had even thought about kissing him before tonight.

"Hey, it's okay. I can count whatever firsts I like, remember? You just said that yourself a minute ago. Look, the others are expecting us to bring the pizza down, right, so we should probably do that." Blaine nodded. Kurt reached for the boxes, and Blaine stopped him again.

"Kurt, could I... could I kiss you?" Kurt nodded, and Blaine leant forward to kiss him. Kurt slid his arms around Blaine's neck to pull him that little bit closer, succeeding in deepening the kiss. Blaine backed Kurt against the wall, never breaking contact for more than a moment, and Kurt didn't have it in him to even think about stopping.

"Yeah, they came up ages ago, so I think we should see where they w-woah," Jeff said, startling Kurt and Blaine apart, Kurt's arms still resting on Blaine's shoulders. "We didn't mean to interrupt anything." Jaz, who must have been who Jeff was talking to, was standing in the kitchen too.

"It's fine," Kurt said, clearing his throat. Blaine smiled at him shyly as he stepped away from him, returning to the stacks of boxes and taking one. Jeff grabbed the other and the pair walked from the room.

"It's about freaking time," Kurt heard Jeff say to Blaine as they left the room.

Jaz quirked an eyebrow at Kurt, "not a couple, huh?"

"Believe me, that's the closest we've ever gotten to being one," Kurt said, "I'm a little confused, but I think hopeful is a better word."

"Okay, let's grab some more stuff so you don't return empty handed." She found some extra snacks and drinks for them to carry down to the rec room with them, and when they got there everyone seemed to have their eyes glued to Kurt and Blaine. The party game sort of atmosphere had totally dissolved, and everyone was back to casually hanging out. Someone had put on some music that he didn't know, creating a nice background buzz. Blaine looked at him across the room and smiled, before finding his shoes all too interesting. Kurt couldn't believe he was getting embarrassed now.

"Kurt!" Jeff said as he bounced over to him, probably noticing the slight awkwardness hanging in the room as everyone looked between Blaine and Kurt. The thought that they all knew what had gone on upstairs didn't comfort him. "You ever heard I Fight Dragons before?"

"Um, no?"

"They're the band we're playing now. Just hold on a moment. Listen." Kurt listened. "That's the noise that Gameboys make when you turn them on. Neat, huh?"

"No one cares about the Gameboy noises!" Josiah called across the room, and Jeff pulled the finger at him in retaliation.

"That's pretty cool, actually," Kurt said. He might not have appreciated it to the full extent, but any time anyone was that excited about anything it was best to just play along. Excitable friends were some of the best sorts of friends.

"They're kind of geeky, I guess. They sing songs about superheroes," Jeff explained.

"How fitting with our friend group."

"I know!"

"Does everyone to ever visit your house need to hear this speech?" Blaine asked. Kurt was surprised to see him, since he had clearly crept up behind them.

"Yes, but I'm done now," Jeff said hurriedly, before effectively running off from them. Blaine rolled his eyes.

"No surprises there," Blaine said. Kurt watched as Blaine's eyes flicked from his lips up to his eyes and immediately could feel himself blushing. He hadn't stopped thinking about kissing his friend- could the word still be applied? – Since the kiss, either.

"Is it always going to be this awkward between us now?" Kurt said, running a hand through his hair absentmindedly.

"Not forever, I hope," Blaine said, "but it's kind of a... nice awkward?"

"Yeah," Kurt agreed, "nice awkward."

"Kurt, will you go out with me properly?" Blaine asked quietly, "I'm trying not to attract their attention," he explained, "but I'd like to go out with you properly. No characters, no annoying friend group, just us."

"Yes, I'd like that." Blaine grinned.

"We'll work the details out later," he said, and neither one of them could stop smiling for the rest of the evening.

They held hands all through the evening, opting for sitting in the back corner of the rec room instead of bouncing around as their friends seemed to be doing. Five minutes before midnight the group clustered around the TV, ready to watch the ball drop, and when everyone finally shouted their New Year's greeting, Kurt wasn't even surprised to find Blaine kissing him again.

After midnight the party settled down as most of the Westerville based guests left, leaving only the roleplay members sitting in a loose group around the TV. Blaine and Kurt sat on the couch, Blaine with his arm around Kurt's shoulders, and the various other couples were also getting cuddly. Marley and Josiah sat close to one another but didn't touch, while Unique, Hadley and Jaz formed the last group.

"You know what isn't fair about spin the bottle?" Ethan mused aloud.

"The double kiss system?" Jasmine suggested.

"Better than the double spin system," Jeff replied. She poked her tongue out at him.

"No, that I didn't get to kiss anyone since your dad came downstairs."

"Aww, sweetie," Leo said, and he didn't hesitate to make it better.

"So what's up with you two?" Nick asked, gesturing to Kurt and Blaine. Kurt wasn't at all nervous about the latest advancements between them when it came to the group he was with now. Before there were too many people he didn't know, unknown variables, for him to feel comfortable. This more intimate group was made up of the people who were often his best friends.

"We're going to go on a date," Kurt said, "and we'll see what happens after that."

"I'll print the wedding invitations," Unique teased.

"Do you know how long we've waited for this?" Jeff said.

"Can't be longer than we have," Blaine said, pressing one sweet, chaste kiss to Kurt's mouth. No one in the group made any comment, and Kurt knew in that moment that right there, in the group, in Blaine's arms- that was where he was meant to be.

* * *

_A/N: Firstly, good golly, I know this was a bad chapter if you get bad second hand embarrassment but it was a nice kind of awkwardness, right?_

_Secondly, yes, naming all of Jeff's siblings with Js was a bit of a stab at Riker Lynch's family. Hey R5ers! You also have my full consent to imagine Jaz as Rydel and Josiah as Ross (or Rocky even, if you like)._

_The geeking about I Fight Dragons will be of more relevance later, but the title of this fic comes from a line in one of their songs :)_


	11. First Dates

Kurt and Blaine didn't get further than a day later when it came to planning their date.

After a night of sleeping in Jeff's basement rec room side by side, Kurt woke up to find that Blaine's arm was over him protectively. Either Blaine was a sleep snuggler or he had flailed in the night to Kurt's fortune, but he didn't particularly mind which. His hair was all messy and his curls were free, which made Kurt's heart swoop. There was a certain kind of familiarity and comfort that came with waking up next to one another, and he was glad that he had had the experience, even if no more had come from it than them crashing on a shared mattress.

Kurt took the Lima kids home again, slept for another couple of hours, told his dad that he was going to be going out, and then he started getting ready. He was pretty sure he looked like he was running on minimal sleep, but he was so excited at the prospect of seeing Blaine- on a _date_- that he couldn't even care. He did his best to compensate for missing his moisturising routine the day before, he selected the absolute perfect outfit, and he waited impatiently for Blaine to arrive.

"You look happy," Burt commented as Kurt sat on the window seat to look out at the front yard.

"I am happy," Kurt replied. He hadn't felt that happy in a long time, and he was glad that he showed it. He had been told that he looked sad a lot of times in the past few months, and now he felt like he could truly be on the other side of it. With Blaine around, Kurt couldn't imagine ever feeling as sad as he used to be ever again.

"Where are you off to tonight anyway?" Burt asked, sitting down nearby so they could continue the conversation.

"Breadstix. Nothing too fancy."

"You look like it's fancy."

"That's because I'm going on a date tonight," Kurt admitted, unable to stop the smile that came with the thought.

"Oh, well, that's really nice, kiddo. So when is he coming around here for dinner then?" Kurt turned away from the window to find Burt with his arms folded. Burt had had years to perfect his papa bear routine exactly for these occasions. Kurt thought he was lucky he was an only child (when you excluded Finn), because he could only imagine how much worse this scenario could be for a daughter of Burt's.

"It's not like he's my boyfriend yet, dad. This is our first proper date." Burt widened his eyes at Kurt at the word 'proper'. He could only imagine the scenarios that were playing through Burt's mind at the term, at the thought that dates had happened in some form.

"You could have fooled me. What's his name?"

"Uh... Blaine. It's Blaine. You've met him already." Burt smiled for a moment and Kurt didn't miss it, but he had his role on again promptly.

"Doesn't stop me wanting to meet your _boyfriend_. He's different now," Burt reasoned. Kurt rolled his eyes but didn't dare question his father's logic.

"You said he was charming."

"Well, he didn't want to get in your pants then!" Burt was really getting exasperated about nothing.

Kurt could feel himself blushing. He didn't really want to talk about sex in any way with Burt, even at simple connotation levels. "He's still not trying to do that, dad."

"I was a teenage boy once, I know how it goes."

"Dad, I'm a teenage boy now," Kurt said, and Burt opened his mouth to respond, "And I'm not sleeping with him!" Kurt added.

"That makes it worse, that you're a teenage boy! There are two teenage guys; you don't have a girl to keep it going all slow and old fashioned. You know what they say about how guys only have one thing on their mind."

"I like romance, dad. I want hand holding and being walked to the door and having good night kisses. I don't want to be a stereotype enabler, but if you're that worried, I guess I'm not _that _different to my teenage female friends. We have the same ideals even if we don't have the same equipment." Burt sighed, but Kurt's point seemed to have gotten through to him. It was just in time too, as Blaine's car pulled up in the driveway.

"Go on, bud," Burt said, "scram. You have a first date to go on." Kurt thanked his dad and didn't even refuse when Burt handed him twenty dollars. He had a feeling that Blaine would be paying for dinner anyway, but he knew when to accept his dad's gestures of approval. The smile Burt gave him, one that absolutely screamed of how proud he was, made it all worthwhile.

The doorbell rang and Kurt counted to five before he opened the door, making sure not to look too desperate. Blaine was dressed absolutely perfectly for the occasion, and Kurt wondered if maybe he had gone home and spent a similar amount of time getting ready. He was wearing a polo shirt and bowtie that Kurt thought was adorable and so utterly Blaine, the perfect balance of preppy and whimsical.

"Hey Kurt," he greeted, "Oh, this is for you." He presented him with a single yellow rose, with a red at the tip which Kurt's cheeks were doing their best to imitate.

"Thanks," he replied, taking the flower. He put it on the table just inside the door so that his hands were free before hugging Blaine, the proper kind of greeting. A kiss would have been too forward even though they had done it before, but the hug was perfectly fitted. Blaine snuck a kiss to his cheek anyway, and he really wasn't going to complain.

They finally left the doorway and climbed into Blaine's car. Blaine started the car and fiddled with the radio for a moment before they drove away. "Breadstix is sort of the place to go for McKinley, right?" Blaine asked, "Like, taking you there is going with the social norms?"

"Since when do you care about social norms?" Kurt asked teasingly.

"I just want to make sure that your first date is everything you have imagined it to be."

"Well, I've already got you here; I doubt it can match any other fantasy quite as well." Blaine smiled down for a moment before he seemed to remember he was driving and focussed on the road again.

"You've fantasised about dating me?" he asked bashfully. _And kissing you, and marrying you, and..._

"I've had a crush on you for a really long time, Blaine," Kurt said, trying to deter the subject ever so slightly. They were on a date for crying out loud, there was no reason for him to be embarrassed by his attraction to the boy.

"I know. I think everyone knew."

"They thought something was going on between us from the moment Darcy and Nightbird started dating."

"Well they weren't completely wrong, we were kind of flirty right from the beginning. It took me a little longer than you though, I think."

"You flirt with everyone," Kurt teased.

"I do not! I'm just a friendly person!" Blaine insisted, "But Breadstix is okay, yes?"

"Yes. It's the perfect cliché first date location, and I'll be glad to say I've done it when it's over."

"See? You _are _glad that I was meeting social norms."

"We never have to go to Breadstix again after tonight if you decide that it's a completely awful restaurant. I suppose you Dalton boys usually take your dates somewhere more upmarket than most other high schoolers."

"That's true, I think. You're the first date I've had in a really long time, though, so I wouldn't know. We can have the next date on my home turf and then I can take you to any upmarket restaurant I like," Blaine reasoned.

"Next date?" Kurt said, maybe his excitement a touch too audible.

"Was I not meant to plan ahead? I just thought that we had pretty much agreed that we like each other enough for one date and that should mean we like each other enough for more after that."

"I liked hanging out with you before the dating, and I like kissing you, so…" Blaine laughed.

"I'm glad, Kurt." Blaine parked the car outside Breadstix and unbuckled his seat belt and turned to face Kurt instead of getting out. He took a deep breath before saying, "Would you mind if I kissed you now?" Kurt shook his head, and Blaine leaned over, cupping his face gently to guide their lips together. It was over much too soon, and then Kurt's door was being opened for him. He was so caught up with how Blaine could take his breath away that he was only vaguely aware of Blaine having left the car and darted around to hold it open all gentlemanly. Kurt stepped out of the car and let Blaine hold his hand as they walked inside.

They sat opposite one another in a booth, the conversation between them flowing as easily as it did whenever they were together, regardless of location. He was enjoying every second of it, and when their desserts arrived, Blaine took his hand across the table. Kurt wasn't sure why he wasn't completely worried by the gesture. Usually any pride he had about being gay was completely stamped out of him and he didn't want to encourage anyone to pick on him, but Blaine made him feel so safe and secure.

"What do you think about Hadley's boyfriend?" Blaine asked, "Like, am I the only one who is a little bit suspicious by how he looks like me?"

"No, he totally does! And his name is Blake, too. I'm impressed by her efforts to find someone exactly like you to persuade us all that she no longer has a crush on you."

"Do you think that's what she's trying to do?" Kurt nodded enthusiastically.

"Oh, absolutely. It's not even subtle."

"He looks less scared than I did at his age," Blaine mused.

"And he can't sing," Kurt pointed out. Blaine laughed, thanking Kurt for the compliment to his own vocals.

"Kurt!" a female voice called from across the restaurant, causing Kurt to turn so fast that Blaine pulled his hand away reflexively. Over in the Cheerio booth were Santana and Brittany, along with their cheerleader friends- or at least they were, until they decided to saunter over to Kurt's booth instead. "Fancy seeing you here, lady Hummel."

"Santana," Kurt greeted monotonously, "always a pleasure."

"Hi!" Brittany said brightly, missing the obvious annoyance in Kurt's voice, "is this your boyfriend, Kurt?" he looked at Blaine, who just raised his eyebrows at him with a smile.

"Uh… yes. This is Blaine, my boyfriend." He didn't miss Blaine's attempt to try not to smile too big. He ultimately failed, but Kurt knew exactly how he was feeling. _Boyfriend _sounded so good.

"Damn, Hummel, you know how to pick them," Santana said, squeezing into the booth beside Blaine. Brittany hesitated for a moment before sitting down next to Kurt, as though she knew she would be interrupting something but had some innate desire to follow along behind Santana.

"We were just about to go, actually-"

"Don't worry Kurt, you can finish your cheesecake still," Blaine said. Kurt wasn't sure whether he should have been thankful or not for it.

"I'm Santana," she introduced, "and this is my girl Brittany. You're a Gargler, right?"

"Um, excuse me?" Blaine said, taken aback at the comment.

"You know, the show choir at gay Hogwarts."

"Warbler! He's a Warbler," Kurt said quickly as Blaine looked vaguely embarrassed. At second thought he realised that the four people who went to Dalton that he knew best were all gay, and he hadn't exactly hurried to ask the other Warblers that he met about their sexual orientation. For all he knew they _could_ all be gay. Blaine _had _mentioned that they had some weird processes and traditions.

"Same thing, right?" Santana stood up from the booth, although she had barely just sat down, and Brittany hopped happily to her side, "well, it was nice to meet you, Fluttershy," Blaine nodded in recognition, taking a sip from his drink, "remember that it's polite to swallow because spitters are quitters." Blaine visibly tried his hardest not to do just that as the cheerleaders walked away.

"Sorry about her," Kurt said, "Are you okay?" Blaine cleared his throat.

"I'm fine. I wasn't expecting her to go from _My Little Pony_ to blowjobs, though." Kurt smiled slightly.

"Well, there's Santana for you."

"Boyfriend though, huh?" Blaine asked, smiling adorably at Kurt. The new word still made Kurt flutter on the inside, especially when it was attached to Blaine.

"Um, yeah, if you want. I know it's kind of the norm these days to go on more dates than this before going exclusive."

"Kurt Hummel," Blaine started, taking his hand across the table, "will you go steady with me?"

"Yeah," he smiled, "I'd love to."

"No one says 'go steady' anymore, but I kind of like it," Blaine said.

"I'm not surprised in the slightest." Blaine called their waiter over to get the bill and didn't bat an eyelid before he paid, and Kurt knew just to let him. "Are you going to pay for all our dates like this?" he asked nonetheless.

"Does it make you uncomfortable? Because I don't have to. I just have a lot of money that I don't do anything with and it's kind of how I show affection, I guess," Kurt smiled at his choice of words, and Blaine didn't miss it. "Yes, affection. I _like _you, Kurt. We just agreed that we're a couple, you would think you would understand by now that I'm not joking."

"I know. It's just hard to believe that for once everything is coming up Kurt."

"Come on, let's get out of here." They slid out of the booth and Blaine put his hand on Kurt's lower back as he guided him from the restaurant and to the car. "So, what do you want to do now? The night is young and so are we."

"You didn't plan further than dinner? I'm surprised," Kurt teased.

"I have about five plans, really."

Kurt thought for a moment about what it was that he actually would like to do. "Is it too late at night to go walking in the park?"

Blaine checked his watch. "I think so. Why do you ask?"

"Because with Nightbird and Darcy… it's nice. There's no pressure to do anything but talk and get to know each other better," Kurt admitted.

"I have an idea." They got into the car and Blaine drove, refusing to answer any of Kurt's questions about the location of the next part of their date. Kurt stopped paying attention to where they were even going until Blaine parked the car. He looked around and realised that Blaine had taken him right back home, though they were parked a little way down the road. "How much will your parents hear if we sit in your yard?"

Kurt shrugged. "Not a lot, as long as we don't sit right outside the kitchen window." Blaine grabbed blankets out of the back of his car- of _course _he kept blankets in there- and Kurt walked him to a spot at the edge of the garden. Blaine spread out one blanket for them to sit on, and then wrapped the other around his shoulders, offering an open arm to Kurt. He shuffled over until he was close into Blaine's side, and Blaine closed the blanket around them again.

"Does this satisfy how you were wanting to talk?" Blaine asked.

"This is nicer than walking around," Kurt replied. He was genuinely content with the set up. Any time spent with Blaine was great, and the times when Kurt could sit with Blaine's arms around him were some of his favourites. He made him feel so safe and wanted, feelings that he was beginning to find harder and harder to associate with some of his best friends.

"Mm, I agree."

"What sort of things should we learn about each other now we're this far?" Kurt asked. Blaine shrugged.

"You can ask me anything you want to, I won't mind. That way we can get all the little stuff out of the way. Like, I don't know, what's your favourite class at school?"

"Besides glee club? French. And you?"

"I like music best, but I like English a lot, too," Blaine said. He paused for a moment before saying, "okay, now you ask something."

"What's your favourite musical?" Kurt asked. It was an important question for him to know the answer to, especially when it came to his new boyfriend.

"I really like _Rent_ a lot, but my favourite sort of changes depending on my mood," Blaine answered.

"Are you more of a Sondheim or a Webber fan?"

"That's not fair, you asked two questions. But that changes, too. Overall probably Sondheim, but Webber has his gems that you have to give him credit for, no matter how strongly you support Sondheim."

"_Wicked_ is my favourite," Kurt said, answering his own question.

"It's a classic. Like a Broadway staple. And your second answer?"

"I don't think I could choose between them. _Wicked_ is Stephen Schwartz, so I can't even be biased." Blaine laughed.

"That's adorable. Who would you cast yourself as?"

"Galinda. Well, Guy-linda."

"I'd be Fiyero."

"Well, maybe that would be worth me playing Elphaba instead," Kurt said, "except I don't think you're tall enough. You might have to shoot for Boq."

"Or Chistery! I like to climb things, after all," Kurt laughed, because Blaine was being so endearing. He liked to _climb things_ and he sounded so damn happy to feel that way. "Wait, why is my height an issue when your gender isn't?"

"I was only kidding, B."

"B? Is that a thing now?" Blaine asked.

"Unless you hate it," Kurt said quickly. He really liked having little nicknames like that for people, and he hadn't even really thought about it before he said it. It had just sort of happened.

Blaine thought for a moment. "You can call me B. It's not Squirt or Blainey, so I'm okay with it."

"How about _Rent_? Who would you be then?" Kurt asked, pulling their conversation back to the previous topic.

"I've always wanted to be Mimi. You know, for _Out Tonight_, mostly. I'm guessing you would go with Maureen for Idina?"

"Idina really does have a special place in my heart," Kurt mused, "but I think Angel is my favourite. For _I'll Cover You_."

"Let's make a deal right now," Blaine offered, "We'll sing _I'll Cover You_, so long as we also sing _As Long As You're Mine_."

"You think I wouldn't agree to singing duets with you? You could have suggested that we sing the Goofy Goober Song together and I would have agreed to your deal."

"We can totally do that sometime too, Kurt!" Blaine said with genuine enthusiasm. Kurt wasn't sure why he ever thought Blaine wouldn't go for that.

They stayed chatting right up until Blaine realised he should be driving home to make it back before his curfew, and both of them hesitated as Blaine packed up the blankets. It was much colder without the close proximity and body heat, as they found when Blaine walked Kurt to the door. "Can I kiss you goodnight now, Kurt?" Blaine asked shyly, and Kurt nodded. Blaine put his hands on Kurt's hips as he leaned up to kiss him gently. Shocks ran through Kurt, a feeling that he couldn't get enough of, telling him that there would never be a time in his life when he didn't want to kiss Blaine Anderson.

"Are you always going to ask if it's okay to kiss me?"

"I just want to make sure that you're comf-" Kurt cut him off with a forceful kiss, and it certainly seemed to work. They lingered on the doorstep for far too long, neither one wanting to be the first to pull away.

Kurt had barely gotten inside when his phone buzzed.

**Blaine A. **_Good night, Kurt B)_

* * *

_A/N: Hope you don't mind it coming a little late this week! I'm in the six week slump at uni and have a bunch of assignments to do this week. Hopefully you can still expect another chapter next week, I'll try my hardest to get one up for you :)_


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